Hero
by SongBird312
Summary: Someone is out to get the MBC. And they've found the perfect distraction that could end the team forever. It's now a race that could mean life or death for the MBC. Can the four, teamed with their doubles, win? Who will be their heroes?
1. Ch 1: Shadows

**Hey readers. I know I promised that I'd write I Hope It Rains, but I'm having major trouble writing it. I'm going to keep working with it, though. **

**But in the meantime, I've had a new idea. And this idea was piecing together random little MBC ideas I've had for a long time that I haven't known what to do with. Now that I know what to do with them, I don't just want to let this idea pass.**

**So I'm going to attempt writing two stories at once. Your thoughts are very much appreciated. **

**The name was inspired by the song of the same name by Skillet. But to be honest, some of the story was inspired by Taylor Swift's Haunted. And another part by Skillet's Awake and Alive. Just a random fact.**

**And without any further ado, here's chapter one of Hero. **

**Danny's POV**

"You, Noah, and Connie are going to come over to my house tomorrow so we can film our commercial for language arts," Wendy said as the two of us walked home together. And it definitely felt like November. The sun was shining above us, but the air felt cold and I didn't want to take my hands out of my pockets.

"Sounds good," I replied with a nod. "What's our project on again?"

"Aeaea," Wendy answered.

"That's the place with the lady that turns people into pigs, right?" I asked. All of these Odyssey places keep getting mixed up in my head.

"Circe, right," Wendy said with a nod. We didn't say anything for a minute. But it didn't feel awkward. It felt… right. The wind blew through the trees, knocking a few a few orange leaves off the branches. They went flying away with the wind.

"I love fall," Wendy said as she watched the leaves disappear into the sky. "It's so nice. Not too hot, not too cold." I watched the sun shine reflect in her emerald green eyes. I smiled.

"Fall's nice. But I have to admit that I like spring better," I replied. "It's more on the warm side." Wendy nodded as if contemplating my thought.

"I think we're both agreeing there that winter's too cold and summer's to hot," she stated, looking me straight in the eye. "Similarity number fifteen." I smiled again.

"I can't believe you're still keeping track," I said, shaking my head slightly. "I though you would've given up after a day or two."

"Honestly, so did I. But it's kind of fun," Wendy replied.

"Never knew how alike we really were, huh?" I asked, staring into her green eyes again. The sun was illuminating the color, making her eyes pop even more than usual.

"Nope. I always thought we were too different," Wendy admitted with a small smile. "But ever since I found out that you prefer mysteries to science fiction…"

"Oh please, book preference was not your deciding factor," I cut her off with a sarcastic side-glance.

"How do you know?" she asked, giving me a playfully suspicious look.

"Because I have way more interesting qualities than that," I explained. "And I find your tally method cute." Wendy laughed, laying her head on my shoulder.

"I'm glad you find my method cute," she said, almost whispering.

"I'm glad you finally said yes," I replied, pulling my hand from my pocket so I could wrap my arm around her shoulders. Now this felt right.

I'd wanted to ask Wendy out for years; I'd been trying to get her to notice me since at least fifth grade. Maybe it was even before that. I don't know. But I'd finally worked up the courage to ask her out two weeks ago, after we'd found some common ground to talk about. And she'd said yes. Wendy actually said yes to being my girlfriend.

But of course, the wonderful warm feelings couldn't last nearly as long as I wanted them too. A chill reached the back of my neck, sending a shiver down my spine; the kind of chill that didn't come from the weather. Something was watching us. Correction, something was physically following us. I turned my head to the side slightly, surveying the land behind us. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Are you okay?" Wendy's soft voice asked, snapping me back to reality and my head back to her pretty face.

"Yeah," I said, shaking off what my better judgment was telling me to follow. After fighting monsters for so long, one tends to get a little paranoid. I remember a time when Sam thought that every bird that sang was an alien attacking. Paranoia. It happened to the best of us. And now it was simply my turn.

"So what are you up to on Friday?" I asked, figuring it was my turn to start a conversation.

"I don't think I have anything planned yet, but I'll have to check," Wendy answered, staring straight ahead as if trying to remember. "Why?"

"Well I was just thinking we could hang out," I said in reply. "You know, the whole boyfriend girlfriend thing." Wendy rolled her eye as a smile crept onto her lips.

"Are you always going to call our relationship that?" she asked

"Depends," I said with a shrug. "Do you find it annoying or charming?"

"I'd say it's more of a comical statement than anything," Wendy responded.

"I can live with that," I said and she giggled again.

I felt it again. The same chill as before. A shiver ran down my spine again. I was starting to think this wasn't just paranoia. The MBC alert had gone off a little bit ago, hadn't it? Right when school had let out. The others said they'd get to the monster and hold it off as best they could till I got there. That was today, right?

I looked back again, harder this time. Something had to be there. It just _had_ too! But I saw nothing unusual. Just trees. And some light posts. And our shadows. That weren't in the same positions as…

My shadow's head snapped into the same position as mine after I looked at it. Well that's not normal. Bingo…

"What is it?" Wendy asked, looking back too.

"Nothing," I said with one last look at the shadows. They weren't moving voluntarily anymore. "Just, thought I heard something. Nothing to worry about though." Wendy nodded and looked forwards again. We were about three blocks from her house.

"So on Friday," she began again. "How about we…" And of course that's when our new friends decided to make their move.

An icy hand that looked like it had the claws of a dragon reached out and grabbed my shoulder. But they didn't hurt. In fact, they went right through me, but I could still feel the presence of something holding onto me.

"HEY! Let me go!" I shouted, struggling against whatever it was. I couldn't get a good look at it; it was holding me forward. But it must've looked scary because Wendy started screaming. I had to do something. And I couldn't spill the MBC secret so…

"Get out of here! Run home!" I called, looking Wendy straight in the eye.

"But what about…" she began to protest.

"I'll be fine. Please, just save yourself," I interrupted her, trying to sound as urgent as possible. Wendy nodded and ran away. The shadow didn't follow her. Good, it wanted me. Wait… was that a good thing?

"MBC! HELP!" I shouted into my v-com, hoping that the others were nearby.

"Already here!" Cathy shouted from the opposite end of street as she, Sam, and Chris appeared from behind a building, already suited up and armed to fight. I felt relieved to have help, but the creature's grip tightened on me. Its fingers were cold, like they were made of ice.

"Let him go!" Sam cried as she shot her blaster at the things holding me. With a hissing like scream, the thing let go as the shot came into contact with it. I stumbled forward, catching myself with a tuck and roll out of the fall. I suited up and looked at my opponents. Yeah, I wasn't expecting this.

The creature looked like a floating pile of transparent black and purple sheets that had been torn all over the ends. Black hands with silver claws protruded where the hands would be, and a phantom like face appeared to sit as a mask on it's face. The mouth was open, revealing sharp teeth, and the eyes looked empty. But it was a creepy emptiness. Like that of a real live ghost looking for a soul to steal. And there were four of these creatures.

"What are those things?" I called, giving a quick glance to the others.

"Tarragon Phantoms," Chris answered. "Good news is, they aren't that dangerous." One of the Phantoms heard his voice and started to float towards Chris in a faster pace then I thought possible for such a creature. "Bad news is that they're resistant to pretty much anything."

"Then why did Sam's shot…?"

"It can feel things, but it doesn't necessarily weaken them," Chris clarified before I could finish. He was a little busy trying to deal with the Phantom coming at him.

"Then how do we beat them?" Cathy asked, as one of them was closing in on her too. In fact, one was closing in on each of us. Mine currently had his claws outstretched, just waiting to grab hold of me. And I had no clue what he would do with me after that.

"Tire them out. They have high immunity, but low stamina," Chris answered, quickly running to the left of his first spot. He then ran left again, made a sharp turn to the right and then looped back left. The creature followed him every step of the way, becoming slightly confused. "Fast movement and long movement confuse and weaken them. Then we'll be able to vacuvate them."

"Sounds good to me," Sam replied, running away from her Phantom. Naturally, it followed her. Cathy and I followed suit. I took another look at my opponent then made a mad dash to its left. I sprinted to the end of the street, then looked at my Phantom again. It was hot on my tail. So I took off again, eventually creating a large triangle. The creature didn't seem tired yet.

"Still got it in ya to chase me, eh?" I asked. "Well good. Cause I'm just getting started." I started running again, planning a much cooler route this time.

I ran through the middle of my previous triangle. Then, I added in a few quick turns and even another tuck and roll. A few more sprint lengths back and forth across the street seemed to do it for my foe. I took out the vacuvator and sucked up the monster. I looked at the creature, floating inside the little glass container. Even small, the Tarragon Phantom still looked creepy. I shuddered and ran over to help the others.

Sam seemed about finished with hers, so I aimed and fired at the creature. It got sucked in with its buddy.

"Thanks Danny," Sam called to me. I nodded, and turned to Chris and Cathy. Their Phantoms had teamed up against the two of them. Cathy was on the ground. I ran over at about the same time Sam did.

"Leave them alone!" she shouted, blasting the creature nearest her. It hissed at her, revealing its fangs. Sam flinched but didn't drawback. She doesn't show fear in battle. I admire that about her.

"Halloween was last month. You're a little late, guys," I said before firing the vacuvator at the two creatures. The hissing one got sucked up right away, but the other one fought the blast. It looked different too. There was a red glow about it. I wondered if that was just a trick of the fading sun. It had to be. The glow was the same color as the sky.

The creature lunged at all four of us, stretching enough so that we all felt it fly through us. It was like being submerged in ice water. But it was gone in a second, flying away towards the fast approaching night. The days were so short now.

"Well that was an interesting battle," Sam said in the short silence that followed as we all recovered from the wave of the Phantom.

"Never seen something like that before," I said, looking at my friends. "Chris, had did you know so much about them?"

"I do my research," Chris answered with a shrug.

"Grandpa's been encouraging him to read all these old books on the different planets with alien life and what kind of creatures live there," Cathy explained. "Because it could be useful and Chris likes to read more than the rest of us."

"And his memory's better," I added. "I can't remember how they taught us in first grade and he can remember the exact way it was taught to us."

"But you do remember what was taught to you, right?" Sam asked, her tone joking.

"Um, about that…" I replied, continuing the joke. The others laughed and I smiled. I like making other people laugh. Especially these three. And Wendy.

"We should probably get home. It'll be dark in a little bit," Cathy said. "Wouldn't want anyone's parents to freak out about homework."

"True point. I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow then," I said. We all agreed and said goodbye before heading our separate ways home. I was off to do my homework!

Not really. I was actually going to call Wendy and see if she was alright and make up some phony story about what those things were. That sounded way more rewarding than solving equations.

**End chapter one.**

**I'm going to go into chapter two. **

**Please review. I'd appreciate your thoughts and opinions! **

**Read on!**


	2. Ch 2: Trouble?

**Chapter 2! My first chapter published as a 16-year-old! =)**

**I hope you all enjoy it!**

**Sam's POV**

"If life were a musical, everything would be perfect," Cathy said staring with a blank expression at the board.

"Except for the really over dramatic heartbreak scenes where the characters sing the tragic love ballads," I pointed out.

"Well, yeah, I guess you're right. But the big group numbers would be sooo much fun!" Cathy agreed, sitting back in her chair and looking over at me. "Sam, it's Wednesday. It needs to be Friday. I'm not even kidding."

"I understand. I feel the same way," replied with a sigh. "It's just one of those weeks that drag on and on."

"And you know what would make this week a lot better?" Cathy asked. There was a shine to her eyes. I knew exactly what she was going to say.

"If life were a musical?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes!" Cathy exclaimed.

"Well choir's next period. If you can survive through math, you'll make it," I responded, getting out my homework.

"Oh no! Sam, I'm drowning in the quadratic equations! They're pulling me under! The parentheses have me by the feet and I'm getting lost in all the variables! Help! I'm not gonna make it!" Cathy exclaimed over dramatically, pretending to be dragged under by imaginary math equations. I laughed.

"No! Cathy! Think of the melodies! Think of the melodies! They can save you!" I said in reply. Then we collapsed into a wave of giggles.

**Cathy's POV**

"We're auditioning today?" I heard Julia Conway ask from behind me as we stared at our choir director in post news shock.

"Yeah. I won't be here tomorrow or Friday and I want to be the one that decides who'll be singing the solos for my concert," the teacher, Ms. Carpenter, explained. She was young, probably about 21 in human years, and she really loved music. And I had to be honest, I'd much rather get the auditions out of the way now with her than with our extra advisor: the music theory teacher from the high school Mr. Brighter.

"That makes sense," Julia said with what I can assume was a nod. Ms. Carpenter smiled and pulled out a notepad with blue paper.

"So, who wants to try?" she asked, looking around at all of us. "There are eleven…"

"Eleven?" someone asked.

"Yeah. Two in Defying Gravity and seven in Don't Stop Believing'," Ms. Carpenter clarified. "The two in the Wicked song are written for girls, but the other ones I plan to mix up. So let's start with those. Who's first?" We all sat there quietly for a minute, looking around at each other.

"No one wants to volunteer?" Ms. Carpenter asked, looking around at us again. "Then I guess I get to choose… How about Miss Fiorini and Mr. Mahoney."

"No, those two aren't allowed to go first or together. They're too good," Mark spoke up.

"Then why don't you go, Mark?" Ms. Carpenter asked. Mark looked like a deer in headlights. "Come on, you just volunteered yourself. Pick any girl you want." Mark sighed and stood up. As he was walking past Chris and Danny, I saw Danny lean forward and whisper something that got him an evil glare. As Mark walked away, Danny and Chris high-fived. Boys.

"Wendy? Come join me," Mark said, then gave Danny a look. My brunette friend returned the look as his girlfriend walked down to join his archenemy.

"Alright you two, give it all you got," Ms. Carpenter said encouragingly as she hit play on the CD player. They sang the first few lines of the song, the lines that had been designated for the audition for every solo part in the song. They didn't sound bad. We all clapped at the end.

"Very nice," Ms. Carpenter said, nodding as she wrote note down on her notepad. She brushed her short, curly blonde streaked bangs out of her eyes before looking up at us again. "Next?"

"I'll go," Bridget Hirzel volunteered. "Erik, let's go." Bridget nodded forward and the sandy blond boy sitting next to Jeremy walked up to the front with her. Ms. Carpenter started the track. Both of them were really good. As they sang, I stared at Chris until he returned eye contact.

_You should go next, _I mouthed. He shrugged and nodded. I nodded back as we clapped for the other two.

"Next?" Ms. Carpenter asked. I saw Chris raise his hand at the same time as Sam. Yes!

"Alright. Mr. Mahoney, Miss Thomas, the floor is yours," Ms. Carpenter said as my two best friends took the 'stage'. This was going to be something.

**Sam's POV**

"Oh, hold on guys. I accidently turn the whole system off," Ms. Carpenter said apologetically. "My thumb slipped and hit the power switch. Give me a minute to reboot it." As our teacher fixed the music system, I turned to my partner with a smile.

"Nervous?" he asked, returning my smile.

"Yeah. But I want to get it out of the way," I answered. Did it really show how nervous I was?

"You're gonna be fine," Chris said, lightly putting his hand on my shoulder reassuringly. I felt my stomach flutter with butterflies all over again, but for different reasons this time. Yeah, I kinda had feelings for Chris. Just like I kinda had feelings for Danny. It didn't help that I spent almost all of my time with both of them.

"And we all know you'll be great. This solo is as good as yours," I replied, being completely honest.

"Not necessarily. There are some guys with seriously good voices in here," Chris said in response, but he wasn't convincing me. He had the best voice of the guys in this class. I knew it. The class knew it. He knew it. "But competition shouldn't matter. This is all just for fun, anyway."

"Right," I said with a nod.

"All righty, we're set to go," Ms. Carpenter announced. "Ready?" she asked Chris and I. We nodded and she started the track.

I have to admit; it felt pretty good singing up there with Chris. I felt comfortable with him; king of like the feeling you get when you're singing into a hairbrush in your bedroom in front of the mirror. Yeah sure, it was only a few lines of a song, but it was a fun few lines.

Of course, it was fun till afterwards when everyone was clapping and I saw all the color drain out of Chris' face. He looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

"Chris?" I asked, rushing towards him and taking him by the shoulders. He didn't respond. His eyes looked focused on something; something far away.

"Chris?" I asked again, shaking him a little. He blinked and shook his head, then locked eyes with me. I couldn't decipher anything in them.

"Is he okay?" Ms. Carpenter asked, coming over to us, looking back and forth between us.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Chris said in a less than reassuring voice. "I'm just… tired." Yeah, he wasn't convincing me at all. I don't think he had Ms. Carpenter convinced either.

"Do you think it would be helpful to see the nurse?" she asked, now staring directly at Chris. He shook his head.

"No. I'm fine. I just zoned out for a minute," he answered. His voice was getting stronger. Ms. Carpenter sighed.

"You know yourself better than I do. If you say you're fine, okay," she said. She wasn't convinced that he was alright. I wasn't either. But I would ask Chris about that later.

**Chris' POV**

After school, Danny had to go to Wendy's for a science project and Cathy was helping her grandpa with something (she wouldn't tell us what,) so we decided to all just go home today. I walked most of the way with Danny until we came to Wendy's house, then we split up. I wasn't in the mood to discuss what happened in choir with Sam. I know she wanted to interrogate me about it. But I just couldn't tell her about it right now. So naturally, when Cathy pulled her along on the way to her house, I relaxed.

What happened today in choir was still freaking me out. I'd seen something, and I didn't know what it was. There were these two… things. I'd never seen anything like them before. But it looked like they were in the choir room with us. I didn't think I wanted to tell anyone about them just yet. I had to figure out what they were first. Well, maybe not no one…

"John?" I asked when I walked into the house. The elementary school had been off today due to some issue with the building. (Was it the pipes broke, or that the rood in the main hallway had collapsed?)

"Yeah?" my little brother called from the kitchen. I walked in to find him making some sort of contraption out of sunglasses and some interestingly colored materials in Styrofoam bowls.

"First of all, what are you doing?" I stopped my train of thought.

"Building Ecto-Spetacles," John answered, holing up his creation. It just looked like a pair of sunglasses covered in a rainbow of gooey paint. I told him so.

"Well of course that what they look like now. They're still in phase one," John answered. "But when these babies are done, we'll be able to see ghosts." Yeah, I probably shouldn't have said that the creature we saw the other day were like ghosts. I should've known John would've done something like this.

"Does Mom know about this?" I asked as I placed my backpack on a chair away from John's project.

"She knows I'm using paint," my brother answered. Reassuring.

"John, where did you put the book?" I asked, getting back to my original question as John got back into his work.

"Right over there," John answered pointing his paintbrush over to the couch in the living room before slopping orange goo on the glasses. I walked over and found the black book with the red and gold writing sitting there. It didn't look harmed and there was no paint on it. We were good, for now.

I flipped through the pages until I came to the picture I was looking for.

"John, have you read about the Radars from planet Zevon yet?" I called into the other room.

"Yeah, why?" John called back.

"Are they dangerous?" I asked as I skimmed over the page. My eyes hit the answer just as John called back the one word I didn't want to hear.

"Yes."

**So, what did you all think? Please review! All and any comments are appreciated! **

**Read on! =3**


	3. Ch 3: It All Starts With Boredom

**Chapter 3!**

**Enjoy!**

**Cathy's POV**

If there's anything I've learned throughout my time here on Earth, it would be that girls should never try to figure out guys and vice versa. Either way leaves the thinker way to confused to go on. If only that excuse would pass to not do homework.

"Sam, have you ever tried to figure out guys?" I asked on a limb while the two of us were sitting in the library during study hall. I couldn't stand the history chapter we had for homework. I was in the mood for a serious subject change.

"Yes, and all I got was that they usually have short hair," Sam replied from her own history book. "There are always exceptions though." I let her go back to her studying for a minute. Then boredom won out.

"What do you guys end up with when they try to figure us out?" I asked, still on the same topic.

"Probably something along the lines of associating us with long hair and skirts," Sam answered, looking up at me curiously. "What's with all the questions?"

"Products of boredom," I replied, propping my chin up in the palm of my hand with my elbow propped on the table. "I really don't want to read this."

"I can tell," Sam replied, finally closing her book and looking at me straight on. "Hopefully no monsters will attack tonight so you can get that reading done after school."

"Why are you so into studying right now?" I asked, my eyebrows coming together in confusion. "I mean, I know grades are important to you, but you're never this stressy unless there's a big test coming up. What's going on?" Sam didn't answer, but her golden eyes seemed to be focused elsewhere.

I followed her gaze to two tables behind me, where Danny and Wendy were sitting, looking over something in a notebook. Each one kept pointing to a different spot on the page, and then they would look at each other and discuss whatever it was. I nodded in recognition.

"I see. You're using school as a form of distraction," I said, turning back to my friend. Her eyes widened at my comment. "Oh yeah, I know you kinda like him. And I approve. Danny's really nice, and he's funny. But I always thought you had a thing for Chris…"

"To be honest, I think I have a thing for both of them," Sam admitted, looking away with embarrassment. "Spending so much time with them, I've gotten to see who they really are." I nodded.

"No kidding. Both of them are great examples of Earth boys," I agreed, nodding my head. "And both of them are pretty easy on the eyes…"

"Speaking of eyes, I know it's a little strange, but what happened during choir yesterday with Chris?" Sam asked. "That was really weird."

"Well I don't know. Of the two of us, you would know the most," I replied, honestly as confused as she was. "I think the only one who would really know what went on would be Chris himself." Sam nodded in submission, looking back at her books and pulling out her science notebook.

I sighed and turned to look out the window. At least I'd gotten a little conversation out of her. But I guess Sam was way too into her studies at the moment. So I let her be.

The sky was overcast, with a bright blue-sky peeking out from between light gray clouds. It looked like a natural stained glass window. The soft glow it cast on the world below made everything glow slightly with a light that gave the world a new sense of life. It looked so peaceful and calm….

"Hey Cathy!"

"AHHH!" I squeaked as I fell right out of my chair and onto the carpeted floor.

"_Shhhhhhhh!_" The librarian shushed harshly over at me. I pushed myself up on my hands and nodded at her with a forced smile. As soon as she looked back to her 5000-page nonfiction book on the origins of dirt, (or at least that's what Danny and I guessed she was reading,) my smile faded to a tired scowl. That librarian is not one of my favorite ladies in the world.

"Oh my! Cathy, are you alright?" Jeremy exclaimed as he clumsily rushed to help me up. He offered his hand, but I refused it and pushed my self up off the floor.

"I'm fine," I replied, brushing the dirt off my sleeve. "What's up?"

"Well, I saw you and Sam sitting over here and I was wondering if maybe I could join you two," Jeremy answered, messing with his glasses. I sighed and looked over at Sam. She signed that the decision was mine to make.

"Alright. Come on," I said, nodding towards our little table. Jeremy sat down next to me and got out his math book. I had expected this to be awkward, but it turned out fine. We all just kind of got to work in silence: Jeremy and Sam on their homework, and me on a note for Penn Hyson. We'd been pen pals ever since I'd met him last spring when his mom had tried to destroy the Earth. *

"Do either of you guys have colored pencils on you? I forgot mine in my locker," I asked.

"Nope," Sam replied.

"Sorry," Jeremy answered.

"I got ya," a third voice replied, placing a box of colorful pencils on the table in front of me.

"Thanks," I said smiling over at the blue eyed, freckle faced boy moving sit in the chair next to Sam. "Finally you decided to show up. Where have you been, kid?"

"Testing out the visual aide for my groups' English presentation," Chris answered.

"You guys are done?" Jeremy asked, wide eyed and in obvious awe. I was surprised too, and so was Sam. We'd been assigned the project two days ago.

"No. I tested a different file, but it's the same flash drive so if one works, the other one will hopefully work too," Chris explained his reasoning. "So what're we all doing over here?"

"Working hard," Sam answered. "As opposed to hardly working." Her eyes floated back to Danny and Wendy quickly. I followed her gaze once again to see them still comparing notes. But this time, when they stopped to discuss, I saw Wendy lean forward and quickly kiss Danny on the cheek. Oh jealousy.

"I see," I said with a nod. The boys seemed interested too, but I don't think they'd understand no matter how hard they tried. I was still kind of musing over the whole guys vs. girls mind set thing.

The final bell rang and the four of us gathered up our books and headed for the door.

"Hey guys!" Danny said as he met Chris, Sam, and I at our lockers. Wendy's locker was at the end of the hall and in order to get out of school sooner, they'd separated for a minute.

"Hey Danny," I replied, slamming my locker shut. "What is up?"

"I've gotta admit, I'm really happy today is over. We are now halfway through the week," Danny answered, looking at his books as though he was questioning whether to bring them home with him or not. He decided against it and closed his locker.

"Success," I replied as the other two shut their lockers. "Are you coming home with us today?"

"Yeah. Wendy's staying for French club," Danny explained. "So let's go home and see if any aliens want to come and attack Single Town today!"

"Alright! Sounds good," Sam replied as the four of us took off down the hall.

**Chris' POV**

They were all over the place. The blue Radars were walking all throughout the hallway, around people, sometimes even through people. Luckily they were the blue ones, the red ones are bad news. And of course, as soon as I thought of it, a red creature appeared right in front of my face.

A quiet, throaty laugh came out of the mouth less creature before it threw all of its weight at me and knocked the wind right out of me.

**Danny's POV  
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It was seriously like someone pushed him over, but no one did. We would've seen them if they had. But that's exactly how Chris collapsed to the floor, just as if some invisible force had pushed him down.

**=O Cliffhanger! Sort of…**

**Anyway, tell me what you think! **

**Read on!**


	4. Ch 4: All In Your Head

**Sorry! I didn't like how I ended this chapter before, so I rewrote it. Hope you all like this version!**

**Thanks for all the positive reviews! I really appreciate them. =)**

**Enjoy chapter 4!**

**Sam's POV**

"What's wrong with him?" Cathy asked as she, Danny, and I stopped and stared down at our friend who'd totally just passed out in the middle of the hallway.

"I don't know!" I replied, kneeling down next to Chris just as his blue eyes fluttered open. "Chris!"

"Ow," he replied, holding on to his head as he sat up slowly.

"What's wrong?" I asked, placing my hand on his shoulder.

"Let's see, he blacked out, then fell, so he probably hit his head against the floor," Danny replied with a hint of sarcasm. "Really, Sam, we just saw what happened! The real question is what happened!" I had a feeling that last part wasn't really directed toward me. Instead, it was intended for the dazed looking blunette I was sitting next to.

"I… don't know what happened," Chris said, hesitating. "The last thing I knew I was walking with you guys and now I'm on the floor and yes I do think I hit my head and I would not recommend doing so."

"That's not very helpful," Cathy said honestly. "That doesn't explain why you blacked out."

"Well, unfortunately, I don't know how to explain that," Chris responded, pushing himself to his feet. I didn't let go of his arm, though. He didn't look stable enough yet and I didn't want him falling over again.

"You don't remember anything about losing consciousness?" Cathy asked.

"When does anyone ever remember losing consciousness?" Danny asked in reply.

"Sometimes you can remember if there's something hurtling at your head and the next thing you know, you're lying in the nurse's office with a big bump on your head," Cathy countered.

"It was one time, okay?" Danny replied. "That volleyball was out to get me. Or, Mark was. But still! You all know what happened." He retreated into a short contemplation of embarrassing moments gone by as the rest of us continued on with the situation at hand.

"Chris, you have to be honest with us. First, you zone out in choir, and now you black out in the middle of the hallway. Something's up," I said in an authoritative voice.

"You've actually been sleeping at night, right?" Cathy asked. "Not staying up reading some five billion page book on the history of toothbrushes?"

"Yes, I've actually been sleeping at night," Chris answered, for the time ignoring the second part of Cathy's phrase. We all had to ignore that for the time being.

"And you're feeling okay?" I asked, placing the back of my hand on his forehead. No fever.

"I feel fine," Chris answered, gently moving my hand away. "I'm serious, guys. Don't worry. I'm okay." I sighed and exchanged glances with Cathy. We couldn't break him now. Unless he was telling the truth. We'd have to live with that for now.

"Alright. If you're sure," I said. "Let's go to the clubhouse."

**Cathy's POV**

The sky was still overcast as the four of us exited the school building and began the walk home. The air was cool and there was a slight breeze blowing. It felt like fall.

"The history of toothbrushes," Danny said suddenly, looking at the ground with a smile on his lips. "You ever read about that before, Cath?"

"Okay, it was the first thing that came to my head!" I said in my defense. I knew this discussion was coming. I'd known it from the minute I'd said it. "And you know, I just kind of said it."

"Sure," Danny said suspiciously.

"HEY!"

The four of us stopped and turned to the familiar voice calling out to us. It wasn't unusual for John to meet us at school, but that was usually when we were in the middle of a mission and he'd discovered something important. Still, we waited for John to catch up to us.

"What's up John?" Sam asked.

"Well, I don't know if the three of you will have any clue what I'm talking about," John began, gesturing to Sam, Danny, and me. What a way to start an explanation. "But Chris, I read something about those Radars that you might want to know…"

"Wait, Radars? What are Radars?" Sam asked, looking up at Chris, a gleams of suspicion in her eyes. Now why would she ever… and then I put it together too. Could these Radar things have something to do with what happened earlier?

"They're… I'll explain in a minute," Chris replied, suddenly looking kind of like a deer caught in headlights. Guilty! Yeah, these creatures were related to his weird behavior. "John, what did you…"

"Why didn't you tell us about these things earlier?" Sam asked, sounding a bit upset. "And what are they?"

"I'll tell you in a minute," Chris repeated.

"Are they like those ghost thingies we fought earlier this week?" Danny asked.

"No," Chris answered. "I'll explain to you the legal definition in a moment. John, what did you figure out?"

"Well, I was reading the book and it said something about the Radars only being visible and tangible on three conditions. One, if they're on their native planet which we obviously aren't. Two, if there's star fruit around, and three was faded away," John explained. "I don't know if that's exactly what that means for you."

"They're tangible," Chris answered, going into thinking mode. "One of them pushed me down earlier…"

"Aha! I knew there was something you weren't telling us!" Sam exclaimed, pointing her finger in victory.

"Wait, can't you see them?" John asked, looking between Sam, Danny, and me with curiosity.

"No," I answered warily, exchanging glances with Sam and Danny. We all seemed to be in agreement.

"Well that's strange," John said, looking confused. "Chris, how come you can see them but they can't?"

"I don't know, John. My only guess would be option three in the book; the option we couldn't see," Chris answered. He sounded slightly disappointed. Maybe he didn't know as much about these creatures than we assumed he did.

Just then, our v-coms started beeping.

"Alien attack," I stated the obvious. "Let's move."

**Danny's POV**

"You're back? Or are you the cousins of our creepy friends from earlier?" I asked the ghostly creatures floating before us. The sun was setting, and the woods weren't exactly the best place to fight dark creatures at night. "We're gonna have to do this fast!"

"I hear you. The sky's getting darker every minute," Sam replied, blaster pointed at the creature in the center. "MBC, let's go!"

And then we took off with the same game of cat and mouse that we played with the Tarragon Phantoms last time. I took off through the trees, weaving around thick trunks and scraggly bushes to keep the shadow creature on its nonexistent toes. It was pretty fun, I don't understand why the people in the movies seem to hate the chase scenes.

"QUICK! Someone vacuvate this guy before he gets his energy back!" I called once I felt the Phantom was giving me enough of a lead. Chris shot the blue tractor beam at the creature and in seconds, the black and purple shadow was floating inside the little glass container. I saw that they'd already captured two. That meant one to go.

"Where's the last one?" I asked.

"Weren't there only three?" Cathy asked from the top of a hill.

"I thought there were four," I replied.

"Nope. That was last time. There were only three here this time," Sam said.

A sound like the cracking of flames sounded in the trees behind me. I whipped around to see nothing but the darkening forest. No fire.

"Did anyone else hear that?" I asked, looking around warily. The fourth Tarragon Phantom was in the area I could sense it.

"Hear…" But Cathy's question was cut short by the cracking sound rang out again, this time much louder. It seemed to echo around us, trapping us in the noise. Something was close by.

"It's the last Phantom," I insisted, getting back into my battle stance.

"No," Chris replied, shaking his head. "It's the…"

"Radars?" Sam asked. Chris nodded. I could tell that he was scared out of his mind. I don't think anyone else would've picked up on it. There's a perk to being best friends. But the down side was that I couldn't do anything to help him out now. Not with an enemy so close.

"The only problem is," Chris began to explain something to us as whatever was causing the noise went streaking through the center of our little group. It was moving so fast, I couldn't even get a glimpse of what the Radar looked like.

"The only problem is that you guys can't see them," Chris finished his statement from before. "And I think they're here for you."

**End of the chapter, in the middle of a battle! CLIFFHANGER!**

**Read on!**


	5. Ch 5: Invisible But Deadly

**Two chapters in one day. This is my apology for slow updates! =3**

**So, I ended chapter four with a bit of a cliffhanger. And so I'm going to try to get right into chapter five!**

**Enjoy!**

**Sam's POV**

So we had to fight what we couldn't see? Great. We had no idea what these things really were; we didn't know their strengths or their weaknesses. We could even be outnumbered for all we know. The only thing we had on our side was…

"Chris, you need to tell us what they're doing," I instructed. "We'll follow you." I locked eyes with the blunette, who nodded to me in recognition. I pulled out my blaster, Cathy and Danny following my lead. The four of us created a circle, each of us facing a different direction.

"What do they look like for one thing?" I asked. Better start basic.

"Red and blue life size shadows," Chris answered. "They look more like stick figures than real people though. Menacing stick figures." That was good enough for now.

"Where are they?" Danny asked.

"Waiting," Chris replied. "From what I've seen, Radars are really good strategists. They don't adapt well when their opponents when they change their strategy though."

"So they're basically rebooting their system to better attack us," Danny asked somewhat rhetorically.

"Yeah. Cathy, shoot straight ahead of you," Chris instructed. Cathy shot her blaster into the near darkness. A screech pierced the air.

"We got one," Chris announced.

"How many to go?" I asked.

"Two, but one's blue and the other's red. A blue one died with one hit. I have a feeling that the red will be harder," Chris responded. "Danny, to your right! Fast!" Danny shot. His blast hit a tree trunk.

"Too slow," I stated.

"Again to your right," Chris said to Danny. The green-eyed boy shot again, and missed his target again. The cracking sound rang out near me.

"It's circling us," Chris stated. "Danny, shoot to your right again in three, two…" Danny shot before Chris could say one and a second screech pierced the night.

"Yes! Two down!" Cathy cheered. "Where's the red one, Chris?"

"Hiding," Chris answered. "It's smarter then the others. Be on your guard everyone."

An eerie silence fell around us. It was the silence of anticipation. And it sent chills running through my body.

Then, after what felt like an hour, a deafening screech sounded in the night. The sound seemed to be charging straight for our circle.

"It's charging on my side," Chris relayed to us. "Everyone shoot at it! It's going to be stronger, remember?" We all did as Chris instructed, shooting at where the sound was coming from.

Instead of a death screech, this time the Radar evaporated into a quick spark of light.

"Well takes care of that," Danny said with a triumphant sigh.

"Yeah. I guess those things are getting more and more troublesome, huh Chris?" Cathy asked our seer. But Chris didn't answer her. "Chris?"

I turned just in time to see our friend fall to his knees.

"They attacked you again!" I exclaimed, dropping down next to him. Danny knelt down on Chris' other side.

"You could say that," Chris semi agreed, his voice quiet. He sounded hurt, but he looked fine. As far as I could tell.

"I thought you said there were only three," Danny said, seeming just as worried as I was. He sounded like a brother. Then again, I guess Chris and Danny were as close as brothers.

"There were," Chris answered. "But I guess they have powers we don't know about."

**=O **

**A new discovery? There's more on the way. The MBC is in for quite a shock. **

**And if you want to know what that shock is, you're just going to have to READ ON!**

**=)**


	6. Ch 6: The Other Kind?

**Chapter 6!**

**Please enjoy.**

**Danny's POV**

"I didn't think it'd get this serious this fast," Chris answered my question honestly. He was looking at the ground. He felt bad about this.

"What do you mean?" I asked. Sam and Cathy had run ahead to the clubhouse to tell Mr. Smith what was going on. It was just Chris and I walking home slowly. We'd all deactivated back into our regular clothes just in case anyone saw us. His energy seemed to be fleeting. I don't know what that Radar did to him, but whatever it did it had seriously hurt my friend. More than anything the Radars had done to him before.

"I've read about the Radars and they're described as harmless creatures. It didn't think they'd become tangible in a day," Chris explained. "It's that third option! If only we knew what it was."

"Hey, Mr. Smith will probably know what's up. He's pretty good about that kind of thing," I said reassuringly. "And it is his book you're reading. He should know what it said before."

As the two of us entered the clubhouse, my prediction was confirmed.

"I'm 95% sure I have the answer," Mr. Smith announced as Chris and I entered our head quarters. Now that was comforting.

But of course, that's when the Radar's real attack took control and Chris fell on my left. I tried to grab him before he fell, but my reaction was too slow. The others were around the two of us fast.

"Did he black out?" Cathy asked. She was worried, it was clear in her voice.

"No, but he's fading fast," Mr. Smith replied. "Danny, help me get him on the hover table. It'll be easier to examine him there."

I helped the old alien lift my friend onto the floating table, even though either one of us could've lifted him by ourselves. Lying there, Chris looked weak and vulnerable. I didn't like it.

"Grandpa, do you know what's wrong with him?" Cathy asked.

"I believe I do," Mr. Smith replied. "But there's only one way to find out for sure…" He trailed off as he began to walk away to get some type of equipment.

"Wait! There's something I… forgot… to tell you," Chris said, his voice just about a whisper. Mr. Smith stopped and turned back to our fading team member.

"One of the… Phantoms bit me," Chris continued, his voice weak and shaky. "When they attacked… a few days ago…"

"But the Tarragon Phantoms can't bite," Sam said, looking around at each of us. "You told us that."

"It wasn't a Tarragon Phantom," Chris replied, shaking his head slightly. "It was… the other kind…" I looked at Sam, who looked at Cathy, who looked at Mr. Smith. The _other_ kind?

"Chris, what are you talking about?" Sam asked urgently.

"The other Phantom… bit me…" Chris repeated, flipping his left wrist over. But before he could do or say anything else, Chris lost consciousness.

"What's he talking about?" I asked.

Mr. Smith didn't say anything for a minute. He stared at Chris for a while, looking as though he was contemplating a new thought. He had said he was only 95% sure of his theory.

Then, without a word, Mr. Smith rolled the sleeve up on Chris' left arm. And then some things started to make sense. Not a lot of things, because everything actually got more complicated at that moment. But a few things did start to make more sense.

"Grandpa…" Cathy whispered.

There were black markings stretching from Chris' wrist to about half way up his lower arm. They looked like ropes; tight ropes that frayed off into small swirls in some spots that were wrapping tightly around his wrist.

"What… how…" Sam stuttered.

"This is more serious than I thought," Mr. Smith whispered. He gently twisted Chris' arm so he could see the other side. And there, in the middle to the rope designs, lay a mark that looked like a five-pointed star created from thin crescent moon shapes.

"This is much more serious than I thought," Mr. Smith said again.

"Grandpa, what does that mean?" Cathy asked, her blue eyes wide with fear.

"It's not any kind of language. It's a symbol," Mr. Smith said, still looking around at the marks. "The symbol of the Tracker Snatchers."

"Is that what the 'other kind' are called?" Sam asked.

"I'm afraid so," Mr. Smith nodded. I guess his plan hadn't been correct. "Luckily, I had the feeling this was the case. But unfortunately I haven't figured out the solution yet."

"Then let's just start back at the beginning," Sam suggested. "What are these Tracker Snatchers?" Good old Sam, always has her eye on the ball. Whenever something needs to get done, she'll get it done.

"Tracker Snatchers look just like the Tarragon Phantoms, except they're red where the Phantoms are purple," Mr. Smith started explaining. "And they can bite. That's what makes them so dangerous. A bite from one of these things detaches your subconscious soul from your body, making you somewhat like the Snatchers themselves. I don't know what happens then, but I do know that your subconscious soul has a certain time limit to find its way back to your body before some other spirit can claim it as its own."

"Sounds like a horror movie," I commented.

"You'd think that. But what I've heard is it's more like an adventure film," Mr. Smith replied. "I wasn't able to get the full explanation as to why, but I suppose when you're separated from the real world, it's kind of fun and full of action. But back to the Snatchers, there is one more thing about them that I have to tell you. You see, these creatures don't attack on a whim. They'll only go after a soulless body willingly..."

"So why then would one of them…"

"The Snatchers will only bite and take the soul of someone they've been assigned to attack," Mr. Smith interrupted Sam. "And that means that someone out there wanted Chris out of the way. And my fear is that same person also wants the three of you out of their way."

**Another surprise! But there's more on the way…. =)**

**R&R please! All comments accepted! **

**Read on! =3**


	7. Ch 7: Dreams of the Unconscious

**Sorry it's been so long since I updated. I had a bit of a writer's block with this story, then I got my wisdom teeth taken out, and then I had finals, which are now over. **

**So now I'm back on this story. And for all of you who've read my story MASQUERADE, prepare for the return of the parallel opposites!**

**I hope you enjoy!**

**Regular POV**

"Knock the lantern over and run," Danny whispered to Cathy, who gave him a confused look in return. They were trying to escape from the clutches of a villain who had locked them in the basement of whatever building they were in, Cathy didn't know what building as she was unconscious when they were brought there. Why would knocking over a lantern help that process at all?

"Cathy, knock the lantern over," Seth said from Cathy's other side, his voice calmer than Danny's.

"Why?" Cathy asked, not seeing what the guys were. Seth's brown eyes locked with Cathy's before looking down at the floor under the medieval lantern hanging on the wall above the blonde's head. Cathy looked down too. There was a shiny, black liquid on the tile floor. Cathy looked up at Seth again, and then over at Danny who nodded at her.

Cathy sighed before reaching up and knocking the lantern off its hook. The three teammates jumped away as the lamp crashed to the floor and glass flew in all directions. The flames that had been held within the glass made contact with the mystery liquid, and ignited into an even bigger flame. Had Danny and Seth known it was going to do that? Or was it just a lucky guess?

"Run!" Danny cried as the flames began to grow. The three rushed towards the door and out into the street. The sun was setting and the city felt still, too still. It was abandoned, but they'd known that. There were only seven other people anywhere in the city now; the rest of their team and the villain trapped inside the soon to be burning building they were leaving behind.

"We're not safe yet. That fire will reach the explosives we saw in the basement sooner than it'll reach the top floor where our friend is planning the demise of our real friends," Seth said. "We've gotta keep going. Maybe find some of the others." Cathy and Danny nodded in agreement.

The three began walking down the empty street. There was no noise except for the sound of their steps ricocheting off the buildings. The air was still, now wind and no noise to carry.

"Where is this place?" Cathy asked, looking up at the skyscrapers around them. All of the buildings were gray, gray with blank black windows. Had lights ever illuminate those windows? Had people once lived here?

"You'd think we'd know by now," Seth replied. "But the location is among the information that's being with held from us. Why? I'm not quite sure. You'd think location wouldn't effect us escaping at all."

"It might. If we knew where we were, we could try to contact someone from somewhere close by, if anything was close by," Danny reasoned. "But yeah, I don't think knowing the name of a city would help us get out of it." Cathy nodded as the trio kept walking. Then they heard the building collapse and turned around to see three people falling through the air.

"My songbird may have gotten out of her cage, but you won't," the shadow covered man said, relocking the cage Sam was trapped in with a new, unbreakable lock. This one was opened with a number combination, and couldn't be picked open with a hairpin. _There's no way I'm getting out of here,_ Sam thought as the man walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him as he had every other time he'd left.

"Christine, where are you?" Sam asked the silent room, falling backwards and letting herself softly hit the metal bared wall of the cage. They'd decided that she would be the one to go get help. How long ago had that been? An hour? Two? Or was it actually less than that? Sam had completely lost track of time. There were no windows so she couldn't judge the time by the sunlight, and being trapped also tended to make time drag.

Christie was coming back for her. It was just taking her a little time to formulate the perfect plan. That's what Sam kept telling herself over and over again in her head as she closed her eyes and tried to forget about this twisted game she was trapped in, literally!

A creak coming from the left side of the room caught Sam's attention, and she snapped her brown eyes open just in time to see one of the ceiling panels clatter to the floor before Christie jumped down after it.

"Told you I'd be back," she said, and I'm not alone. Chris jumped down after her, followed by Kyle and Danielle. "I ran into these three, and we decided that we didn't have the time to find the others. So we came to get you first."

"Well, I don't know how much time we'll have," Sam replied. "Shadow man didn't leave that long ago. He probably heard the ceiling fall and he's most likely on his way up here. And he locked the cage with one of those electronic code locks."

"Don't worry about that," Kyle said, pulling out a small vile of green liquid. "I found this downstairs. And I think it'll help."

"Does it help you figure out a lock code?" Sam asked.

"Nope. It disintegrates stuff," the blonde boy replied, running over and pouring the liquid on the lock. The metal was slowly eaten away and Kyle pulled the rest of the lock out and opened the door to the cage. "Now let's run. We have three buddies to track down and one evil villain to outsmart."

"Which way do you think'll be faster, down or up?" Danielle asked.

"Down. There's nowhere to go when you get up to the roof," Sam answered, stepping down out of her bared cell. "Let's go."

"Not so fast," shadow man's voice said from the door, where he was currently standing ominously with his red and black cape floating out behind him. His stance took up the entire doorway, making their escape impossible.

"Up it is!" Danielle stated as she followed her team members up the rickety staircase on the opposite side of the room. Hopefully there was something up there they could use to escape.

"What do we do now?" Kyle asked frantically once they'd reached the roof. Danielle slammed the door shut and slammed herself against it in a futile attempt to bar shadow man out when reached the top of the stairs.

"Remain calm. We won't anything done if we're freaking out," Christie said, looking around at everything out on the roof. "Let's see, ways to escape…"

"Electric line," Chris pointed out the wire connecting their building to the one across from the back of it. "We could find something to slide across it with."

"Something like what?" Sam asked.

"Anything that'll hold," Chris answered, searching through the piles of miscellaneous items stacked around the roof. The banging on the door caught all of their attention.

"We're losing time!" Danielle cried, fighting harder to keep the door closed.

"That means we have to take the electric line," Sam said. "Chris, found anything?"

"Not yet," Chris replied nervously, the setting sun reflecting off his blue eyes. _No wonder she likes him,_ Sam thought. _I always thought it'd be cute if Chris started dating…_

"I can't hold him much longer!" Danielle exclaimed, the door bucking harder and harder as shadow man began to win the upper hand. The whole building suddenly shook.

"What was that?" Kyle asked.

"Earthquake?" Christie suggested.

"More like the fire eating this building away," shadow man said as he pushed the door open, knocking Danielle across the roof toward Chris with the force of the push. She stumbled over and fell, her head hitting the edging of the roof. Chris ran over to make sure she was all right. The brunette hadn't lost consciousness, but it was clear that the world was spinning for her.

"A fire?" Sam asked, her eyes widening along with the rest of her friends. Now the clock was really ticking. The building shook again.

"How long till it collapses?" Kyle asked as though shadow man wasn't the enemy.

"Any second now," the villain replied. "And I'm so sorry I won't be here to see you all go down along with all of this junk." He pulled a yellow button out of his utility belt and pressed it, revealing a jet pack.

"What is all of this stuff anyway?" Sam asked.

"What's it to you?" shadow man asked in response, turning on the jet pack. The little propellers starting to turn with a buzzing sound as the building shook a third time, this time more violent than before.

"Well, it turns out that you have some really great stuff up here," Christie said, pulling out a fold of purple cloth from the middle of one of the piles. "Stuff that's great for doing things like this," she continued as she threw the material at the jetpack. The fabric got caught in the propellers and caused them to jam. Shadow man fell back onto the roof.

"You ruined my escape, Songbird," he cried, pointing a finger at Christie. "You'll pay for that one."

"Doubt it," Kyle said with a laugh. "You haven't seen this girl go warrior, have you?"

"Kyle, we don't have the time," Christie replied.

"You're right about that," shadow man said, pulling a scratched up gun from a stack of items. "I've got full ammo and only five targets. This'll be easy."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Sam replied, pulling a wrench out of one of the piles.

"And what do you plan to do with that?" shadow man scoffed as Sam whipped the wrench at him, knocking the gun out of his hands. The weapon shot, the bullet zipping through the air right between Chris and Danielle. "Hey!"

"Chris, get Danielle out of here. Take the electric wire. We'll hold off shadow man!" Sam directed. Chris nodded and pulled Danielle to her feet. She wobbled a few times before grabbing onto his shoulder as he dug through the closets pile for something they could use as a zip line. He ended with an umbrella.

"Hold on," Chris said to Danielle as he took a running start off the roof, looping his right arm around her center and guiding the umbrella up to the wire with his left. The hook of the umbrella caught the wire and the two went zipping away.

"Well, missy, two can play at the throwing things game," shadow man said, tossing a piece of a cracked mirror Frisbee style at the electric wire. His angle was perfect, slicing the wire in two.

"NO!" Kyle exclaimed, extending his hand down to catch his two friends and prevent them from plummeting to the ground. He caught the umbrella in one hand and got Chris' forearm with the other.

"Heroic," shadow man scoffed. Kyle clenched his teeth and chose to ignore him. He couldn't make his way over to the edge of the roof to see how far down Chris and Danielle were. But they were far enough for it to be difficult for the alien boy to retract his arms.

Kyle couldn't focus on much more than his current job, so whatever Sam and Christie were doing to take down shadow man was a mystery to him. But just because he couldn't see them, it didn't mean he couldn't hear them. He heard things bouncing off each other, other things clanking against one another. He heard things fall to the ground. He heard Sam scream, then shadow man laughed. The laughing continued, much harder and more triumphant after Christie screamed. It was killing Kyle to not be able to help. But when shadow man cried out, he knew the girls were still holding their own.

"KYLE!" Chris called up to him suddenly. "LET US GO!"

"NO!" Kyle called back.

"LET US GO! TRUST ME!" Chris called back. Kyle wasn't sure what he could do. Drop two of his friends to their potential deaths to save two more of his friends, or continue to hold on to those two and let the others continue to fight for themselves although they sounded hurt.

"OK," Kyle called back, and let go. He pulled his arms back to their normal size and turned around to see shadow man pulling an arrow out of his leg. Sam was armed with a bow that had a few dents in it and Christie had found a sword among the piles of items.

"Naturally, you find the most destructive object available," Kyle commented.

"Naturally," Christie agreed. The building gave another dangerous lurch. "And this building is going down."

"And it's taking you three down with it," shadow man said, clutching his leg and laughing a little insanely. "I may not have been the one to officially take down the MBC, but at least I was there to see them crumble!"

"Good attempt at a joke, but it's time for us to blow out of here," Sam replied, revealing a large tablecloth she'd found. "Come on guys, let's go!"

Kyle ran over to the girls and together they leapt off the roof, using the tablecloth as a parachute. They could hear shadow man's screams, or they could until the sound of the building collapsing drowned him out.

"Are you two alright?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah, we're fine. He didn't get us too bad," Christie answered.

"Just a few bumps and bruises," Sam added.

"Are you sure?" Kyle asked. "Cause it sounded like he really had you hurt."

"Well…" Sam began, looking over at Christie, trying to decided if they should tell him or not. "He did get a few shots at us. But he didn't hit anything serious."

"What?" Kyle exclaimed as they reached the ground. The tablecloth fell on top of them. "You got shot and didn't bother to tell me?"

"Sorry it didn't exactly come up in trying to destroy a villain and escape a burning building," Christie replied.

"Hey! Look who we found," a familiar voice said.

"Danny!" Sam exclaimed as the trio looked up to see Danny, Seth, and Cathy running towards them. "Where were you guys? Are you alright?"

"We're fine. We actually just got out of that building you got off of," Danny replied. "We started that fire. If we'd known you were in there too…"

"It's fine. We wouldn't have been able to escape as awesomely if you hadn't," Kyle responded.

"So we're at six. Have you guys seen Chris and Danielle?" Seth asked. The trio grew silent. "I don't like that reaction. What happened? Were they still in the building?"

"No," Sam answered, looking over at Kyle. "What happened to them?" The blonde sighed and looked toward the ground.

"I let go," he admitted. "Chris told me to. I didn't want to but… I figured he had a good reason for it. And you two were in trouble so…"

"It's alright Kyle. You didn't let them fall in vain," Seth interrupted, placing his hand comfortingly on Kyle's shoulder. "But why were they falling in the first place?"

"Our only escape off the rood was to slide across an electrical wire. Danielle got hurt, so when things started to get rough, I told Chris to take her across the line and out of harm's way, so he did. And then shadow man cut the line and they fell, so Kyle grabbed them," Sam recounted, trying to take a step forward closer to the rest of the team. But she stopped, her face giving away the pain that step gave her.

"Sam? What's wrong?" Danny asked, taking hold of her arm protectively.

"It's nothing," Sam replied quietly.

"Samantha, you got shot in the ankle, that's not nothing," Christie said what she knew Sam never would.

"You got shot?" Cathy exclaimed, her eyes growing wide with fear. Sam nodded in defeat.

"When the end appears so near; there's no place but to fall. When separation tears you up and the distance truly small; when the sun loses it's color, and a shot rings after the brawl. Then level six will be completed, and happiness to you all," Christie recited the lines they had been given before they'd entered the city. "It sounds like we've accomplished all that…"

"Hey, you found the others!"

All six turned with surprise to see Chris and Danielle running over to them from where the building had just recently been standing. Both appeared to be soaking wet, which they were.

"YOU'RE ALIVE!" Kyle exclaimed, pulling both of them into a tight hug. "What happened? And why are you wet?"

"Well, we didn't notice it before, but there was a river behind the building that the wire ran over. So when you dropped us, we fell into it," Chris explained.

"I knew you'd have a reason for me drop you," Kyle said.

"LEVEL SIX COMPLETE," an electronic voice announced all across the city. "PREPARE FOR DEVIRUALIZATION."

"Now we've accomplished all of it," Cathy said, smiling at the newly reunited team. "Happiness to us all…"

**Kyle's POV**

"What's wrong with her?" I asked.

"It looks like a bite from a Tracker Snatcher," Grandma said, examining the weird marking Seth had found on Christie's arm. Talk about a scary experience when one of your friends just falls over unconscious while you're all out helping with the yard.

"What's a Tracker Snatcher?" Danielle asked as Grandma raced over to the computer and started up a transmission session.

"Very bad news," she answered Danielle. "Very, very bad news."

I didn't like the sound of that. I looked back down at my unconscious friend. Just a minute ago, we'd been talking about writing our own account of Earth's history; one that would be based on facts but filled with our sense of humor. Then, she'd kind of just stopped suddenly, like she'd forgotten something. Then she'd collapsed. And now here we were, trying to figure out what was going on.

I looked at the markings on her arm. They looked so familiar. My hand subconsciously found the spot on my abdomen that had similar markings etched on it.

**And thus the plot thickens. **

**Also, most of this chapter was a dream. I know I didn't make that clear at all. But hopefully you read these author's notes. This is actually what Christie was seeing at that moment Kyle said she froze like she'd forgotten something. I know it seems like a lot for one moment, but it can happen. **

**So I hope that little twist wasn't too annoying and I hoped you all liked it. It's kind of foreshadowing of coming chapters. **

**Please review! I love to hear what you think!**

**Read on!**


	8. Ch 8: Two Down, Two To Go

**Sorry updates have been so slow. But I recently wrote out the rest of the set up for this story, chapter by chapter. Hopefully that'll get me writing it faster! Thanks to everyone who's given me reviews and suggestions; they've helped so much!**

**And I apologize for how messy this story has been. I promise it'll all come together in the end. **

**So enjoy!**

**Danny's POV**

The next morning felt colder, and not just because the temperature had dropped about five degrees. The cold feeling had more to do with the fact that my best friend was lost somewhere in the universe and there was nothing I could do to bring him back. At least I don't think there's anything I can do.

Kicking at a lose stone on the sidewalk, I look up just in time to see Sam coming at me from the other end of the sidewalk. Our destination, Cathy's house, now sits right in between us. When I saw Sam round the corner a few steps after me, I realized that I'd secretly been hoping that Chris would be with her, that everything that happened last night didn't actually happen. But it had, and Sam was walking alone.

She smiled at me as we met right at Cathy's driveway.

"Hey Danny," she greeted.

"Hi Sam. Ready for another exciting day learning about stuff we probably won't even be using in ten years?" I asked with fake enthusiasm.

"Sure. If that view of school gets you through it," Sam replied, giving me a look before turning up the driveway towards the front door. "It felt weird walking here alone this morning." I knew something like this would be coming.

"It felt weird watching you walk by yourself," I said in response. "You know, part of me was hoping that…"

"He'd be there?" Sam finished for me, looking over at me. I returned her gaze and found her golden brown eyes sad.

"Yeah," I nodded and turned away to look back at the ground. We reached the front door together and Sam rang the doorbell. It took longer than usually for the sound of the door unlocking reached our ears. And instead of a bright and perky Cathy opening the door, we met a very worried looking Mr. Smith.

"Oh good, you two are here," he said, opening the door wider so the two of us could enter the house. "I've got something very, very important to tell you." I glanced over at Sam, and she glanced back with a look matching how confused I felt.

Sam and I followed Mr. S over to the living room where he ushered for us to sit down on the couch. We took a seat, and the older alien sat down across from us. He took a deep breath as though what he was about to say would be really hard for him to say; or maybe hard for us to hear, or even both.

"Okay, time could be of the essence here, so I'm just gonna explain all of this nice and quick," Mr. Smith began, meeting my eyes first, and then Sam's. "You see, these Tracker Snatchers aren't just coming after you four, they're also going after your parallel opposites. Remember them?" I nodded, and Sam answered yes quietly. "Well, you see, when one of you is bitten and eventually falls under the powers of the venom, your parallel opposite will fall too, bitten or not.

"And we'll have no way of knowing if one of your parallel opposites get bitten. You don't fall to the venom the same way; you don't have the strange dreams or visions, you just fall unconscious and the markings appear where your parallel opposite was originally bitten. That's what happened to Christine last night, and Cathy this morning."

Now it makes sense why this would be hard to say.

"Wait. Are you telling us that…"

"Yes, Cathy's subconscious soul is now floating around somewhere in the universe," Mr. Smith interrupted Sam. "She wouldn't wake up when I tried to get her up for school, and then I saw the marks on her ankle. Mrs. Smith called me after that, saying that Kyle had been bitten and had recently went under. We decided that the best way to go from here was to tell the rest of you what we think you'd need to know."

"Are you sure people don't say this is like a horror movie?" I asked. "Because it sounds like one. The bad guys stealing souls and then trying to steal their bodies!"

"It does sound like a horror movie now, Danny, I agree with you," Mr. Smith said with a nod. "But apparently, after this initial bite stage, it's supposed to get fairly adventurous. And that's what I need to talk to you two about next." The alien shifted closer to Sam and I, as if what he was about to tell us now was of the utmost importance. I felt myself shifting closer to listen. This subject caught my interest way more than anything I'd ever been taught in school!

"Alright, so from what Mrs. Smith and I have been able to research, it seems that once your subconscious soul is sucked away from you, it goes to this world that's halfway between reality and dreams. And in this world, there are multiple levels that your subconscious must pass through to be set free to find your body again," Mr. Smith explained.

"Are you telling us this to assure us that Chris and Cathy will be alright, or to warn us of what'll happen if we get bitten?" Sam asked in her usual mission voice. Good, we had our leader's usual thinking gears in motion.

"In case you get bitten," Mr. Smith nodded. "Now, sorry to drop all of this on you before you have to go off to school. Speaking of, you two should probably get off now."

"Right," Sam said with a nod as she stood up. "Thanks for telling us. And I'm really sorry to hear about Cathy…"

"It's gonna be even weirder around here with two members missing," I commented with a sigh. "But I'm sure both of them can fight their way through those level things and will be right back with us in no time."

"Right," Mr. Smith responded with a nod as he led Sam and I toward the door. "No time." I looked back at the older man as he held open the door. I sensed that he wasn't telling us something, but Sam wouldn't be happy if you were late for school.

"Bye Mr. S. We'll be back after school," Sam said as she walked out the door. I followed her and Mr. Smith closed the door behind us.

Sam and I walked down the street together in silence for a little while. A wind had started to blow, and dark gray clouds covered the sky. It felt like rain. A little rain wouldn't be a bad thing though. I really don't mind it, and maybe I could even work some awesome boyfriend move out of it with Wendy. I smiled thinking about her.

Then the air turned even colder than before. I looked up at the sky, but it didn't look any different. I glanced over at Sam, who also appeared to have noticed the strange weather pattern. I glanced at the sky again as the first drop of rain fell onto my cheek. Whipping away the water, I looked back at the sidewalk in front of me, and my eyes fell on nothing other than a gang of Tracker Snatchers. In less than three seconds, Sam and I were suited up and ready to battle. We had something to fight for this time.

**As always, I love to here your feedback! I hope this chapter wasn't too out of the blue as the past few have been. I promise to update as soon as possible! This chapter was actually a roadblock, to be honest. It'll be a little easier now that I've finished this one. **

**Read on!**


	9. Ch 9: The Final Straw

**Sorry it's been so long. School, vacation, and a bunch of other distractions have been getting in my way of writing anything. I hope that you're all still interested in this story, because I've finally reached the part that I originally had in mind when I wrote the story. Well, actually that's next chapter but still. **

**So, without any further comments from me, please enjoy!**

**Danny's POV**

"Hey, you're hair's finally drying," Wendy commented as the two of walked into history class together. Sam and I had gotten to school ten minutes late and blamed it on the rain. It turned out to be a pretty good excuse as a couple other people were also late because of the storm. But those guys didn't just beat up and capture a group of alien ghost creatures that want to eat their souls! Oh yeah, I did that. And I'm proud of it. Serves those ghostly goons right for biting two of my best friends.

"Finally," I said in reply, running my hand through my mostly dry hair. "I was starting to worry that you wouldn't like me if my hair wasn't perfect."

"I think your hair looks perfect however you have it; dry and spikey or wet and hanging in your face," Wendy replied jokingly. I laughed. "But seriously, I'd rather you not be soaking wet."

"Same here," I said. "It's not exactly the most comfortable feeling to have your hair dripping water down your face every five seconds." Wendy giggled at that and then separated from me to take her seat on the other end of the room. Yeah, we had a class together, but sat nowhere near each other. But I sat by Sam. And Chris… if he were here…

"Okay class, today we're gonna start talking about the effects of World War 1 on the world," Mr. Johnson said as he strode into the classroom, late like the rest of us. Mr. Johnson was cool like that. "And where in the world do you suppose we're gonna start? Miss Hartman?" He pointed to my only friend left standing. Sam perked up and thought over his question.

"Germany?" Sam guessed.

"Close. But less specific," Mr. Johnson replied, pointing over at Eric Hyde. "Mr. Hyde?"

"Uh… Europe in general?" Eric tried.

"Yes indeed. Very good students," Mr. Johnson said, moving towards the chalkboard at the front of the room. Instead of reaching for the chalk in the little tray in front of the board, he pulled down the projector screen and turned on the little receiver box on the ceiling. I was expecting a map of Europe or some notes or something. But instead there was an image that I guess resembled a map. It looked like a lot of water, with one circle of land in the center. What really stuck out to me was how perfect the circle was shaped; I'd never seen a map with an piece of land shaped so perfectly. This map wasn't depicting anything on Earth that was for sure.

"Now here's what Europe looked like before the war," Mr. Johnson continued, pointing to the strange looking map. "And here," He pointed the clicker at the projector, "is what it looked like after." The image didn't change though. It remained on the picture of the strange island. But something did show up that wasn't there before. Red and purple writing, too small for me to actually read, began to appear all over the island part specifically. It almost looked like a strategy plan you'd use in football, only with more words than shapes.

I glanced over at Sam, who was watching the board with interest, as she tended to actually like school. (How she does that still escapes me.) She caught me staring and gave me a confused glance.

"Do you see that map on the board?" I mouthed silently.

"Yeah," Sam mouthed back with a nod. "Everyone can."

"What's it of?" I asked in the same way.

"Europe," Sam replied like I definitely should've known that.

"We aren't seeing the same thing, are we?" I questioned, knowing it was true even before she'd answered.

"I'm thinking not. What are you seeing?" she asked in response.

"A circular island surrounded by water," I answered. Sam shook her head.

"We're seeing different things," she said, before turning back to the board so Mr. Johnson wouldn't catch us talking. I looked back to the board too. The island's image was still there. Great.

As Mr. Johnson continued his lecture, I found my eyes closing. History was defiantly not my favorite subject to sit through, especially the boring stuff that happens after a major war like all the countries trying to rebuild their economies and what not. A few minutes of zoning out wouldn't hurt.

As soon as I let my eye close though, I knew I shouldn't have. My mind began to flash images. A blue light cutting through a room of complete darkness. A large dark shape chasing Chris and me into a cave. A necklace with a ruby red gem sparkling in soft white sand. Cathy jumping through a hole in a solid green wall. Christie holding a sword next to Kyle with a bow and arrow while I held a mace. Sam and I standing right next to each other looking at all six of our friends who had a strange look about them as though it weren't really them.

I had no idea what was going on, so I snapped my eyes open and tried to focus on the lesson Mr. Johnson was giving. No such luck. Even with my eyes open, the images still filled my head. And I could feel them starting to breach more than just my mind. When a picture of my foot slipping in ice crossed my mind, I felt the chill of the wind on a snowy day. When I saw Seth and Cathy running down the dark hallway in front of me, I could almost hear their footsteps. I could feel the vibrations of something coming towards the jeep like vehicle I saw all eight of us sitting in.

_What's going on?_ I thought, closing my eyes again and holding a hand to my forehead. All of this random imagery was starting to give me a headache. Why was this happening? I'd been fine just a minute ago. Then it hit me like the snowball I just watched Kyle throw and correctly hit Danielle with.

"Mr. Jackson, are you alright?"

My eyes snapped open at Mr. Johnson's voice. The teacher was watching me worriedly. I guess I must've looked pretty out of it sitting there with my eyes closed and my hand clasped to my head.

"Not really," I replied. I didn't see the point in lying about it.

"Then I think you should probably go see the nurse. Sam, could you go with him and make sure he doesn't pass out on the way there?" Mr. Johnson asked. Sam nodded and collected her books just as I was.

"Danny, what's going on?" Sam asked as soon as the door clicked behind us. Her voice was urgent yet quiet.

"I think I got bit by one of the Tracker Snatchers," I explained, rubbing the spot between my eyes to try and make the pain go away or the images stop. No such luck. In fact, the images were getting clearer, making it even harder to comprehend reality. "I've been seeing really strange images ever since Mr. Johnson pulled the board down."

"Images? Like what?" Sam asked worriedly, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"A bunch of crazy things. It's pretty much me, you, Cathy, Chris and our parallel opposites doing all this totally random stuff," I summed up my weird visions.

"We need to get you to Mr. Smith right now," Sam said. I nodded, the pain from the images starting to become unbearable. Sam began to pull me towards our lockers and I was pleasantly surprised that my legs were still able to move.

When we got to our lockers, Sam stopped and turned to me. My vision was blurring big time, but I could tell that she was worried behind her serious expression.

"Danny, do you think you can navigate back to the clubhouse by yourself?" she asked. I nodded.

"I think so," I said.

"Alright. I'll see you there," Sam said in response before we both entered our lockers and started our journey towards the clubhouse.

**Sam's POV**

"Yep, the bite's right there," Mr. Smith said, pointing out the black marks on the base of Danny's neck.

"I just don't understand it. How do they keep getting us?" I asked, leaning against the wall of the clubhouse.

"Tracker Snatchers are like the ghosts in your Earth horror movies. They could touch you and you're never know because they'd go right through you," Mr. Smith explained. "That's how they could bite you without you realizing it."

"Well that's a scary thought," Danny said, struggling around the visions in his head. I felt bad. I never wanted to see any of my friends in pain, ever! Especially Danny.

"I agree. And I'm sad to say that I see only one way to get out of this situation," Mr. Smith remarked, staring me straight in the eye. "I'm afraid now that the only way to get you kids back would be for all of you to enter into the shadow realm and fight your way out together."

I let those words sink in for a second, and even though I didn't want to acknowledge it, I knew he was right. We always fought better as a team. And who wouldn't want their best friends fighting by their sides when their lives were on the line?

**What will happen next? **

**Read on!**


	10. Ch 10: The Name of the Game

**(In a sing-songy voice) Next chapter because I actually know where this story is headed now! Yeah! =)**

**Okay. I'm weird. I'll stop that now. (falls in a ditch)**

**So without anymore strange workings of my mind in this author's note, enjoy the story.**

**Sam's POV**

_Sam, wake up. _

I took a deep breath before opening my eyes to a brighter light than I was used to. That was definitely not the light in my bedroom. I blinked a few times, using my hand to shield my eyes as I sat up and came to realization that I was definitely not in my room, or my house for that matter!

No, I was lying on a grassy hill in the middle of an otherwise open field. The wind was sweeping the long blades of grass in the space in front of the hill, giving it the appearance of green waves rippling onward forever. The grass around me was blowing too, but it was shorter than the blades below me and it felt calming and cool.

I'd never seen a place so beautiful. In fact, I'd never seen this place before in my life. It definitely wasn't in Single Town. And if the last conscious memory I have is walking home after Danny fell under the Tracker Snatchers' poison, then perhaps I wasn't in Single Town anymore after all.

"Sam! Are you awake yet?"

I turned at Cathy's voice and saw her running over to me from the opposite side of the hill. Danny and Chris weren't far behind her. I couldn't help the smile from creeping on my face as I saw all three of them. They all looked so happy, so normal. It was comforting to see them all again.

I jumped up to meet them just as Cathy reached me and pulled me into a tight hug that she soon pulled Danny and Chris into. This kind of forced group hug would probably have felt awkward any other time, but now it felt like right. We were a team again!

"Is she alive?" I pulled away from my team and looked where the voice had come from. Kyle came running up the hill followed by Danielle and Christie with Seth bringing up the rear. Yeah, we weren't in Single Town anymore.

"She's alive!" Danny exclaimed excitedly, pulling away and holding his arms up over his head in triumph.

"Yay! Now we get to start the "13 Levels of Doom"," Danielle replied.

"The what?" I asked looking over at the red member of our opposite team.

"The…"

"WELCOME CHALLENGERS TO DEKATRES; THE THIRTEEN LEVELS OF THE SPIRIT REALM," a robotic-sounding voice boomed suddenly from the sky. I felt like covering my ears, but soon found my ears accustomed to the volume. The others seemed comfortable with it too.

"BEFORE EACH LEVEL, YOU WILL RECEIVE A VERBAL CLUE AS TO WHAT TASK YOU MUST ACCOMPLISH IN THE LEVEL. THESE TASKS WILL TEST YOU PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY, AND INTELLECTUALLY. WHEN YOU ACCOMPLISH THIS TASK, YOU WILL BE DEVIRTUALIZED TO THE NEXT LEVEL. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO START EACH LEVEL AS SOON AS YOU ARE DEVIRTUALIZED THERE. YOU HAVE TEN DAYS TO COMPLETE ALL THIRTEEN OF THE LEVELS OR FACE THE CONCEQUENCES FAILING MAY ENTAIL," the voice instructed.

I looked over at my teammates. Cathy was listening hard, trying to remember everything the voice was saying for future reference. Chris had that look on his face that he always got when he was analyzing something; no doubt he was trying to figure out how to beat this game from the inside out. And Danny looked slightly distracted, like he was imaging how he could excel at any physical challenge thrown his way.

"LEVEL ONE CLUE: RED MEANS STOP, GREEN'S FOR LUCK, YELLOW MEANS SLOW DOWN, AND ORANGE STANDS FOR DUCK," the voice said. Then a black mist appeared from the ground and materialized into a door framed with a bright, lime green light. A one appeared above it in a lime green mist similar to the mist the door was made of.

"Level one," Seth commented. All eight of our eyes were on that door.

"Anyone remember the clue?" Danielle asked.

"Yep," I replied along with everyone else.

"Word for word?" Danielle questioned.

"Yep," I replied this time only with Seth, Chris, and Christie.

"Eh, fours plenty," Kyle said with a shrug.

"Right. Now who wants to tell me where they've seen a stoplight with an orange light on it?" Cathy asked, her eyes still glued to the door.

"I guess we're about to find out," Christie answered.

"Who wants to be the one to open the door?" Chris asked in response.

"I'll do it," Danny volunteered, always the hero. He walked forward and took hold of the translucent doorknob.

"Danny wait!" I exclaimed before I could stop myself. The brunette stopped and turned to me, as did the others. I felt my face heat up.

"Be careful," I squeaked out, trying to stop myself from finding a corner and hiding in it from embarrassment.

"Got it Sam," Danny replied with a smile. "Aren't I always careful?" I heard Christie laugh.

"If you're anything like this one," she said, pointing at Danielle," then no, you are most definitely _not_ always careful." Danny turned and gave the bluenette girl a death glare, which Christie returned jokingly.

"Alright, you two stop flirting," Seth inserted his own joke into the mix.

"Whoa! We were not…" Danny began to protest.

"Danny, just open the door!" Cathy exclaimed with exasperation. Danny nodded to our blonde friend before turning back to the door. I saw him take a breath like he always did before making a big play in a sporting event. He held the knob tighter and slowly turned it to the right. The door clicked softly, and Danny pushed against it. And with that, we got our first glimpse at the craziest mission we'd ever have to go on.

**And now is when it gets good, in my opinion anyway. (Because I planned these chapters with the levels like months ago.) **

**Comments? Critiques? Questions? Any other random thoughts? Review please and keep criticisms constructive! =)**

**Again, I do take requests, they may just take a little bit of time to actually become a reality. **

**Read on! =3D**


	11. Ch 11: L 1: Not Your Average Board Game

**As I said in the beginning of the last chapter, this story actually has a direction now, and so thus I'm very excited to push on forward. **

**But I have to admit, this chapter was slightly annoying to write. Hopefully, you guys as writers can see why but will like it as readers.**

**I appreciate everyone's thoughts and reviews so much; it's you guys that keep me writing! =) **

**Cathy's POV**

"Oh wow," Danielle said as the eight of us passed through the doorway that seemed to vanish as soon as all three of us were in the room. The space before us was huge, and the floor was made up of random shapes in all different colors.

"Does anyone know what we're supposed to…"

CROSS THE ROOM AND THE BUTTON ON THE SIDE TO COMPLETE THE LEVEL. ONLY ONE PERSON MUST PRESS THE BUTTON, BUT ALL MUST PARTICIPATE. FALLING RESULTS IN AN AUTOMIATIC RESART FOR THAT PLAYER," the mystery voice boomed, interrupting Danny's question. In fact, it almost sounded like the voice was especially directing its message at Danny.

"Okay. Now that that's settled," Danny said, rubbing at his ear. Yeah, he definitely heard it louder than the rest of us. "Do we just walk across? It's gotta be harder than that right?"

"Naturally. Nothing can ever be easy for the MBC," Seth replied with a hint of sarcasm. "The question is, what's the catch?"

"Guys, have you noticed what the floor kind of resembles?" Christine asked, looking over at each of us in turn. I shook my head, and saw the others staring at her blankly too. Sam and Seth seemed to be analyzing her statement, and Chris seemed to know exactly what she was talking about.

"It's a game board," he answered. I turned back to the colorful floor, and realized that he was right. It did look just like a game board! 

"Way to go blue team!" Danielle said.

"Yeah. Nice catch guys," Seth added. "And now that I look at it, I wonder why I didn't catch it right away."

"Because you were too busy figuring out something else about this crazy world I'm sure," Sam replied. "At least that's what I was doing. I located our end point." As she said this, Sam pointed across the room at a big, blue button on the opposite wall. "We get there, we're done with level one."

"But how do we get over there?" Kyle asked. "Do we have to play the game?"

"I'd assume so," Seth answered with s shrug. "The only question is where are the pieces…" But as he'd said it, I saw something click in Seth's golden brown eyes.

"They're right here, aren't they?" Christine asked, gesturing to the eight of us assembled together. Seth nodded. "Alright then. Anyone wanna go first?" WE all exchanged glances.

"I'll do it!" Danny volunteered enthusiastically. "Just tell me where to go, leaders." He looked between Seth and Sam, who looked at each other, and then back to the board.

"Danny, why don't you try right over there?" Chris pointed out a white circle drawn on the floor not too far away from us. "That looks like it could be a starting place." Danny nodded and headed towards the circle. As soon as both of his feet were inside, a new voice, this one softer and female, began to speak.

"_Ready player one_," it said. "_Movement count: five."_

"What?" Danny asked.

"I think it wants you to move five spaces," Christine answered. Danny looked down at the board, probably judging what counted as a space or not. Then, he carefully stepped forward onto a green colored tile, then a blue, then another green, then a purple, and finally he landed on a third green one. After steadying himself on the tile, Danny looked over at us with a triumphant smile. I shook my head. Classic Danny.

"Who's next?" he asked.

"I'll go," Danielle said in response, running forward to the white circle.

"_Ready player two,"_ the voice announced. "_Movement count: three." _Danielle hoped along the same route as Danny, ending on the second green tile she came to.

"This is actually kinda fun," she said, sharing a smile with Danny. "Come on guys! Try it!"

"I'll go next," I said, stepping towards the white circle. But before I could place my foot inside the starting tile, I stopped when I noticed that I was no longer in my usual clothes, when I'd just had them on outside. Those weren't my usual pink sneakers. Instead, I was geared up in my MBC suit.

"Hey, when did we change into our MBC suits?" I asked, turning back to the larger group of my friends. They all seemed to notice this change for the first time too.

"I must've been when we entered the door. Maybe they just automatically came on," Kyle answered, shrugging.

"Alright," I said, stepping into the white circle.

"_Ready player three,"_ the voice said. "_Movement count: eight."_

Eight. Okay, so I would be venturing even farther out than the two before me. Carefully, I stepped to the first green tile, then to the blue one, then I hopped onto the same green one as Danielle, then passed her onto the purple one, and then onto the same green one as Danny. He smiled at me as I continued on to the next tile, then the one after it, then…

"CATHY WAIT!" I turned to look back at Sam before stepping onto the next green tile.

"What?" I called back, confused.

"Remember the riddle before the level? It said that red means stop. I don't know what that has to do with this, but I'd stop where you are just to be safe," Sam replied nervously. I looked down, and sure enough the tile under my feet was red.

"Okay. That sounds good," I said back. "Thanks Sam!" I could see her smile from where I was out on the board.

"Anytime, Cath," she said back.

"_Ready player four,"_ the voice said. I turned back to see Kyle ready to enter the game. "_Movement count: one."_

"Really?" my opposite exclaimed. "Alright." He stepped sadly onto the first green space. "Christine, go." The blunette girl obeyed him quietly, stepping into the white circle like it was something she did everyday.

"_Ready player five," _the voice announced. "_Movement count: six."_ I watched as Christie carefully hopped by Kyle, then Danielle, and then stopped as she reached Danny's tile that was one before the one she was going to.

"Hey, who thinks they know what slow down on yellow means in this case?" she asked all of us.

"Yellow team?" Danielle asked, turning to the two opposites left on the original area.

"Probably be careful and don't move on it too fast. Since you're stopping on it and not walking over it, you should be fine," Seth answered. "They're probably slippery or something, and moving over them fast could result in falling over and restarting."

"Yeah. Cathy was fine walking over it. But she was moving at a decently slow pace," Sam added. "Which is good, Cath. Be careful out there. That actually goes for all of you."

"Got it, Mom," Danny replied jokingly as he let Christine pass forward onto the yellow tile. "Who's next? Chris?" Our blue member stepped up to the white circle next.

"_Ready player six," _the voice announced. "_Movement count: four." _Chris just as carefully as the rest of us made his way to the space between Danielle and Danny.

"_Ready player seven," _the voice said as Sam stepped up to the circle. "_Movement count: nine."_

"Guess I'm coming to you, Cathy," she said as she came to stop on the red space I was on. "This probably only counts for one turn. Then we can go forward on the next movement count we get."

"Right," I said with a nod before turning back to watch Seth step up as the last of our players.

"_Ready player eight," _the voice announced the final player. "_Movement count: two." _Seth moved to the spot right between Kyle and Danielle.

"_Player one. Movement count: three,"_ the voice began the second round. Danny stopped on the same tile as me and Sam.

"It's getting crowded over here," I said, hoping that one of us wouldn't lose our balance and fall out of the tile.

"_Player two. Movement count: six," _the voice announced. I knew Danielle was headed for us too. And I also knew that we were gonna be in trouble.

"Here, hold onto each other for support. It'll help us keep our balance," Sam instructed, holding onto Danny's forearm and taking Danielle's as she joined us. We all followed suit, and soon had created our own little circle.

"_Player three. Movement count: five," _the voice proclaimed my turn. I let go of my group slowly and gently moved forward five tiles. I ended on a purple.

"No weird rules about purple right?" I asked.

"Nope," Christine replied, shaking her head. "You're good, girl."

"_Player four. Movement count: one," _the voice said Kyle's turn.

"Really?" Kyle exclaimed again, stepping forward one tile to meet Seth. I smiled slightly. Something was telling me that one was going to be Kyle's number in this game.

"_Player five. Movement count: two," _the voice said.

"How about one and we call it a draw?" Christie challenged the voice, stepping onto the dreaded red space with Danny, Sam, and Danielle. "You're turn, Chris!"

"_Player six." ("Yes!" I heard Christie whisper, apparently happy to have beaten the voice.) "Movement count: two." _

"Watch out! It's the yellow space!" Kyle called up as Chris slowly hopped two spaces forward.

"Got it," the blunette replied as he made it safely onto the supposedly slippery tile.

"_Player seven. Movement count: six." _ Sam hopped across the tile until the orange one past my purple tile.

"Wait, what did the riddle say about orange…"

"DUCK!" Seth screamed. The warning was issued at the right second, because just when Sam ducked down, some object went hurtling over her exactly where her head would've been. It was moving way too fast to identify what the object was, but judging by the speed of the thing, Sam could've gotten seriously hurt from an encounter with that.

"Thanks," Sam called back, setting herself straight. "That was a life saver."

"What was that thing?" Danielle asked.

"No idea. It was moving too fast," I answered. I had been the closest to the object, and if I couldn't identify it, I wasn't sure if any of the others could.

"_Player eight. Movement count: three," _the voice announced.

"Alright," Seth said before jumping to the fifth space on the board. "And we're back to Danny."

"_Player one. Movement count: ten."_

"Ten? That's the largest one yet," Danny said as he hopped forward nine spaces before being stopped by a red tile. "Okay. Nine it is. Danielle?"

"_Player two. Movement count: eight." _

Danielle walked past my purple space, past Sam's orange space, and finally landed on the green space right behind Danny's current spot.

"_Player three. Movement count: four." _

I hopped forward four spaces, ending on the same space as Danny.

"Do you think it'll do anything to you if you're supposed to land on it?" I asked, nervously looking down at the tile.

"I hope…." Danny began but before he could finish the tile underneath us vanished and we fell into a tunnel underneath the board that ejected us back at the beginning of the game. "Why did it do that?" Danny exclaimed.

"Maybe if you're supposed to end on a red space, it wants you to stop before it," Seth suggested. "And if you land on one before your actual roll you stop. I don't know. Thoughts anyone?"

"That sounds reasonable," Christie replied. "Sorry guys."

"_Player four. Movement count: one."_

"Are you serious?" Kyle exclaimed, stepping up one space. "Come on!"

"At least you're not the farthest one back now," I said. Kyle shrugged.

"_Player five. Movement count: three." _

Christine jumped up three spaces without any obstacles.

"_Player six. Movement count: seven."_

"Well, I'm stopping at the red one anyway," Chris said as he stopped on the first dreaded red space.

"_Player seven. Movement count: eight."_

"But I'm also stopping at a red space," Sam sighed, jumping to where Danny and I had previously falling from. "Seth?"

"_Player eight. Movement count: two."_

Seth stepped forward carefully onto the yellow space and stopped before he could reach the red one. I guessed they'd all learned from my little mix up.

"_Player one. Movement count: four." _

_ "_Are you serious?" Kyle asked as Danny hopped one space ahead of him.

"Sorry dude," the brunette said.

"_Player two. Movement count: three."_

Danielle stopped on the red space right in front of her. "You know, this game would be a lot more fun without these red spaces blocking the way."

"_Player three. Movement count: five."_

"Aw come on!" Kyle exclaimed as I also passed him.

"_Player four. Movement count: one."_

"Kyle, I don't think this game likes you," Danielle stated.

"Well I don't like this game too much either," Kyle said, sounding a bit upset. "And you know what I'm gonna do about it?" Using his super flexibility, Kyle reached his arm all the way across the board to the button and pressed it.

"LEVEL ONE COMPLETE. PREPARE FOR DEVIRTUALIZATION," the original voice blared around the room. And suddenly, a white light overtook the room. Everything disappeared: the button, the game board, my friends. Everything became blank. Until the light faded away and I was once again in a field.

"Nice thinking Kyle," I heard Danny's voice before I saw my friends materialize around me. "Why didn't we just do that from the start?"

"Because we thought we had to play the game, not cheat to win it," Seth said with a slightly hard look at Kyle.

"Hey, cheats always make the games go faster," Christie added. "If we want to get out of here fast, what's so bad about pushing the rules a little bit?" She was right about that.

"When does level two start?" I asked, a bit off topic. Just as I'd said this, another transparent door appeared, this one black with a hint of a shiny red color.

"Whenever we're ready for it, that's what the voice said in the beginning," Sam answered. "The door's right there when we're ready."

"But there is a clock," Chris said, pointing off into the sky. We all looked up to where his finger was pointing, and sure enough there was a clock that was counting back ward from ten days. "I vote that we get through as many levels as we can before we physically can't."

"I think that plan sounds pretty good if it's speed we're after," Seth replied. "Everyone else?"

"I like Chris' idea," I said, still staring at the clock. "Let's do that."

"Any objections?" Seth asked, looking around at each of us.

"Nope," Danny answered for the whole team. "Let's do this." He ran over to the door and touched the knob.

"LEVEL TWO CLUE," the booming voice spoke up. "SILVER IS YOUR STENGTH, BUT ITS WEAKNESS."

"Well that gives us absolutely no real clue as to what we'll be doing," Danielle commented. "Unless we're fighting werewolves. Which wouldn't be impossible I suppose."

"Well, why don't we find out," Danny said, as he pushed open the door to the next level.

**What will await our heroes in level two? Any guesses after that clue that gives away pretty much nothing? P.S. Danielle is wrong…**

**Review please! I love to hear from you guys! Your comments and critiques keep me writing. **

**Now, as a warning here cause I don't know if I'll publish anything between now and when I leave, but I'll be gone for about two weeks with no internet access. I'll probably be writing, but not uploading. **

**Read on!**


	12. Ch 12: L 2: The Cat and Mouse Effect

**So I haven't written for this story in… how long? I don't even know, almost three months? Sorry guys, I just lost inspiration for it for a little while. But I've got it back, and am ready to write. =)**

**I invite you all to enjoy this next chapter! =3**

**Sam's POV**

"I've seen this before," Kyle said as we entered level two. "I've seen this before. We're in a… a… this is a… it's a… coliseum! It's a coliseum!" And looking around, he was right. We were standing in the middle of an oval shaped open space surrounded by walls at least eight feet high that soon spread out into row after row of seats. We were definitely in a Greek style coliseum.

"Nice one, Ky," Danielle said, high-fiving the blonde boy. "Now what exactly are we supposed to…"

"DEFEAT ALL THREE ENEMIES TO COMPLETE THE LEVEL. ONCE ONE ENEMY HAS BEEN DEFEATED THE NEXT WILL APPEAR. THERE ARE EIGHT DOORS WITHIN THE ARENA AT THE LEVEL YOU ARE ON; THE THREE BLACK DOORS HOLD THE ENEMIES, THE FIVE BROWN DOORS HOLD YOUR MATERIALS. DO WITH THEM WHAT YOU WILL," the voice blared, almost as though it knew what Danielle was asking. The voice echoed all around the spacy arena. "YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES BEFORE THE FIRST ENEMY WILL BE RELEASED."

"Okay. Three minutes to examine five doors. I say we spread out and see what kind of a strategy we can work up," I suggested, examining the space around us. There really wasn't anything we could hide behind; it was simply an open space composed of a compact dirt floor. Hopefully there was something inside these doors that would help us out.

"Wait, what about our MBC weapons?" Danny asked. "Can't we just use those?"

"Nope. They don't work here. I've already tried," Chris answered. "And gladiators didn't have guns anyway."

"Yeah, they used lovely sharp things like this," Cathy added, pulling a sharp pointed spear out of the door closest to us. Kyle cheered and went to investigate another door, and I heard some of the others laugh. Peering further inside the door Cathy had opened, I noticed that the small room was full of different types of spears. Some were tall, some were short, some were made of wood and others of metal, but all of them had the same sharp point at the end. I wondered what we were going to use those for.

"We got shields over here!" Kyle called from the next door over to the right. He was holding a circular shield that was painted red with a picture of a sun painted on it in yellow. "It looks like there are about eight, maybe nine or ten. Either way, they're cool."

"There are swords over here," Christine called from the next door over to the left, pulling out a simple looking blade. "They're all different. Some are really intricate, and some are really simple. But they're different sizes so there's a good chance that there'll be one or two that each of us will be able to hold and wield."

"Worried about not being able to use some of the weapons?" Seth asked the blunette.

"Possibly," she called back. "I'm not exactly a strength person, remember? And weren't gladiators pretty much all strength?"

"Yep. No computers to cheat around with," Danielle said jokingly to her friend. Christie glared back at her, and pointed the sword she was currently holding at the brunette.

"I have a sword and I'm not afraid to use it," the blunette said in reply. Danielle just laughed and turned to the next door that Danny had just opened.

"We've got a legit catapult in this one," he called back, sounding impressed. "And there's a couple really big rocks. It'd probably take most of us to lift them, but I think The Danny could handle it with the help of only one other person." I laughed. Oh Danny. I loved his sense of humor, and his eyes. Ok, maybe I just loved him in general, but we weren't worrying about that right now!

"And there are the roman style chariots in the final door," Seth said, opening the fifth and final door. "There are eight of them. And there's horses already hooked up to them, so we don't have to worry about how they'll move."

"Perfect. And we've got, one minute to spare," I said, looking up at the transparent clock that had appeared above us. "What's our strategy?"

"Everyone pick you're favorite weapon and flock to the middle, then no matter which door opens first, we'll be ready?" Seth suggested, looking around at the others for approval. I nodded my consent, and I could tell that the others seemed to agree. I made my way over to the door with the swords.

"This is gonna be epic," Danny commented, holding a sword with a blade that was longer and thicker than the one Christie was holding. "Are you guys prepared to go all out gladiator style here?"

"Oh yeah," I answered, choosing a blade that was a happy medium between Danny's thicker weapon and Christie's thinner one. "I wonder what they have waiting behind the doors."

"Well wonder no further," Christie said, pointing to the translucent, green numbers that were flashing one and slowly disappearing into thin air. The three of us rushed back to the center as quick as we could. The sound of a large door creaking open to the left caught my attention, and I shifted my gaze over to the door over my left shoulder. It slowly opened inward on itself, revealing nothing at first but a room full of darkness. But then the true challenge emerged.

"Anyone ever seen one of those before?" Kyle asked as the three large beasts walked out into the arena. The creatures resembled lions, but they were black as night and had large wings tucked into their backs. And if my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, it appeared that the lions were made of some sort of stone.

"I've read about one, in a fiction book, though," Christie replied, her eyes trained on the beasts. I'd seen that look before. Back at home, when we were fighting a monster, Chris would often stare it down the same way. I also knew that that look meant Chris was formulating a strategy in his head: noting the monster's physical appearance, adding information we'd read about the creature, if anything, to what he was seeing now, and charting possible weaknesses. I assumed Chris was probably strategizing now just as his parallel opposite was.

"Oh yeah? And did the book possibly give you any insight on how to defeat one?" I asked, keeping as eye on the three lions. Two of them hadn't noticed us yet, but the one in the center had his eyes locked on Danny. Or was it Danielle he was staring at? The two were standing right next to each other, making it hard to tell.

"It was good in the book, they didn't have to hurt it at all," Christie answered. "But if what I'm thinking is correct, we're gonna need something a lot heavier than swords or spears to crush these things."

"Aw man. So we don't get to go all Zorro on them?" Kyle questioned sounding sad. The center lion narrowed its eyes, still watching one of the red members of our team. Red members… hmmm.

"Not yet. Maybe for the next challenge," Chris responded. "But for now, we need to get at least four of us over to that catapult."

"And means we have four left for distractions. Any volunteers?" Danielle asked. Her voice sounded like she was enjoying all of this. And to be honest, I would be enjoying this too, if I hadn't noticed how the center lion quietly alerted its buddies of the existence of living prey in the center of the arena. Adrenaline started rushing through my veins as all three lions' eyes moved to the two red clad brunettes. A terrifying thought struck me; what if these lions were going to react like bulls did to a red cloth, charging at the red object? One could definitely conclude that from watching the beasts' faces.

"They're watching Danny and Danielle," I stated plainly. "And not in a good way. I think those are the two they're planning to attack." My heart started to race as the center lion crouched down in battle position. This was about to get serious. "Guys, we have to make out move now."

"Okay. Red members, Christie, and Cathy, distract them for us. Everyone else follow me to the catapult door as quickly and quietly as possible," Seth instructed, taking a few steps back in the direction of our main weapon. "Ready? GO!"

As Seth yelled our starting command, the center lion gave a deafening roar and sprung forward at the two brunettes. I took off after Seth along with Chris and Kyle. I heard the others react, all four screaming slightly.

"Is that the best you can do?" I heard Danny ask questioningly with a triumphant laugh. So at least he hadn't gotten hurt.

"Watch out!" Cathy shrieked. I spared a glance back to see one of the other lions pounce at Danny, and my heart stopped for a second, but then the jock again evaded him. My heart continued on at its normal pace. Well, whatever a normal hear rate was of a girl running practically for her life with a bunch of adrenaline coursing through her veins.

"Okay guys, so we basically have to crush these things in as little shots as possible," Seth said as we reached the catapult. There was a pile of large rocks sitting farther into the room.

"Ammunition won't be a problem if that's what you were trying to get at," Kyle said.

"I was actually referring to the we want to defeat them as fast as possibly, but I guess ammunition was also a question. Here boys, help me move this," Seth replied as he and the other boys began to push the catapult forward.

"I can help too, you know," I commented, joining them in pushing the heavy contraption forward. It sure was heavy, but not as heavy as I'd thought it would be.

"Okay, so do we have the others try to bait them into position?" Kyle asked, sounding very enthusiastic. He was hopping back and forth between his feet, his hands clenched tightly into fists. I guess that's how he dealt with adrenaline rushes.

"Yes, that is exactly what we want to do…"

"Actually, have them try, if at all possible, to get the lions in the air," Chris interrupted Seth's plan. I looked over at the blunette to find him watching the creatures with the same look Christie had on before. "If we can hit them out of the sky at the right angle, they'll tumble to the ground and smash into pieces on impact."

"Have I ever told you that you're a genius?" Kyle asked, giving Chris a very serious look of question.

"No. We've only been with each other for about a day," Chris answered.

"Oh," Kyle said as his posture fell.

"Come on guys. Chris is right. We've gotta shoot these things down," I said to specifically get the distracted blonde back on track. Then I turned back out to face the distractors. "GUYS! WE HAVE A JOB FOR YOU!" All four of them looked like they were on the track team, running in a gigantic circle with the lions chasing them. It was like a giant game of cat and mouse.

"WHAT IS IT?" Danny called back as one of the lions gave a roar and leaped forward, almost pegging Cathy's leg.

"DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GET THE CREATURE'S IN THE AIR?" I asked. They were silent for a minute as they ran.

"MAYBE," Danny replied for their section of the team. I turned back to see the boys had already loaded a rock onto the catapult.

"Again, I could've helped," I commented.

"You were busy," Kyle replied shortly. "And we know from Mr. Other You here," he said, pointing to Seth as he continued, "that when you're doing something, you don't like being distracted. Especially when you're in combat." Seth and I shared a look.

"We resent that comment," Seth spoke for the both of us. Kyle shrugged.

"I'm just saying," he defended his statement, turning back to watch the battle. "Haha! Look at em' go!"

"WHEN DO YOU WANT THEM IN THE AIR?!" Danny called. He sounded out of breath. They couldn't keep running like that forever.

"ANYTIME NOW!" I responded. I had no idea how they planned to do it, but judging by Danny's last comment, I assumed that they had formulated some sort of a plan. And just as that thought crossed my mind, I saw Danny lead the three other distractions up a ramp into the seats of the coliseum. The lions ran up the ramp after them, gaining momentum and taking off into flight just by the force of climbing the ramp.

"Brilliant," I heard Chris whisper to himself.

"PERFECT. NOW CAN YOU LURE THEM BACK INTO RANGE OF THE CATAPULT?" I called out to them. But it was unlikely that any of the four heard.

Now airborne, the lions were even harder to evade. They were right on the other team's heels, swooping in and trying to take a chunk out of one of them every few seconds. And with three lions attacking it once, it was like a nonstop game of life or death dodge ball; either avoid the hit or lose a limb.

"Do you think we can hit them from here?" I asked, turning to Chris in particular. The techy caught my gaze and then snapped his attention to the battle taking place. I could almost see the little gears turning inside his head.

"What do you think, Mr. Math Wizard?" Kyle added. Chris stared at the scene in front of us, of our friends now running in an even larger circle about ten feet above the dusty ground, for a few moments longer, then nodded.

"We can get them from here as long as they're centered," he explained. "And from what I can judge, if we shoot the catapult when we see them rounding the corner of the coliseum to the right, it should hit our target when it reaches the center."

"Got it," Seth nodded, calling up to the distractors, "GUYS! WE'RE GONNA BE LAUCHING SOME ROCKS UP AT THE LIONS. WATCH OUT!" The group was disappearing above them to the left. "Alright, on my mark. Ready," he said as the four of us took positions to release the catapult. "Set… NOW!" Seth cried when the entire group appeared again on the right. We let go of the strings and sure enough, the rock collided with the last stone lion in the line chasing our friends. The rock made contact with the beast's side and wing, causing it to collapse to the dirt floor under it, pieces of rock flying as it crumbled.

"One down! Two to go!" Kyle cheered. He and Seth then went to retrieve another rock. Chris and I ended up helping them carry it over. We placed it on the catapult and got back into position.

"Release it a little earlier," Chris said, his blue eyes watching as the group started racing towards the back turn again. "As soon as you see Danny round the right corner, let go." We waited for them to run around again, and as soon as Danny came into our sight of vision, I yelled, "NOW!" and we released the catapult.

The rock went soaring into the air and smashed into the lion that was leading the two beasts. This rock smashed right through both of the creature's wings, sending it plummeting to its death in the arena below. Shards of stone rained down on our friends, and the sudden attack caught the attention of the final lion. It's gaze flashed to us, its eyes suddenly picking up four more victims it had yet to play with.

"Load the catapult, load the catapult now!" Seth instructed, sounding panicked. I knew why; now that it'd seen us, it wanted our blood instead. The four of us rushed to get another rock loaded. I could hear the other team yelling at the lion to pull its attention back to them. But it was no use. The creature made a beeline straight for the catapult. Well actually, it was coming for the people around the catapult. My heart rate sped up again.

"RELEASE!" Seth cried as the lion closed in fast. I let go of my rope and stumbled back a few steps from the force. I looked up to see the lion not even ten feet away smash head on into the rock, which smashed its head into millions of tiny pieces. Bits of black stone came flying at us as the body of the creature continued flying until it smashed into the coliseum wall and then proceeded to fall down straight on the catapult. I leapt backwards, shielding myself with my arms. I heard a small cry of surprise escape my throat as I curled in to protect myself. Silence followed the crash of the lion's body meeting the catapult.

I blinked my eyes open and uncurled my body, squinting at all the dust flying in the air. I could just make out the shape of our catapult crushed under the debris of the final lion's body.

"WE DID IT!" I heard Danny's voice shout happily, followed by similar exclamations of happiness by Cathy, Danielle, and Christine. I stood up fully, blowing away some of the dust with my hands.

"IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT?" I asked loudly so everyone could hear me.

"WE'RE OKAY!" Danielle answered for her group and the four of them moved to come back to the ramp.

"Guys?" I asked my team. The dust was finally settling and I could see all three of them again.

"Nothing's broken," Seth replied, coughing stone dust out of his lungs. He and Chris had both been knocked over to the right by the force of the blast.

"Except our awesome catapult," Kyle added. He was on his knees on the left side, holding his right arm carefully. "And I think my arm's gonna have a pretty sweet bruise on it by tonight."

"That was pretty cool though," Chris said as he pushed himself up off the dusty coliseum floor. He offered his hand to Seth to help pull him to his feet as well. "And I'm fine. Are you alright?"

"I'm in a little bit of shock, but fine," I replied with a smile.

"Everyone okay?" Danny asked as the other four joined our group. They were all still breathing hard, their faces flushed from running so hard for so long.

"Everyone but the catapult," Seth answered.

"Well that's okay. Hopefully we won't need it for whatever the second challenge is," Danielle commented. Oh yeah, there was more to this level. And as the sound of a second door creaking open filled the arena, I felt my heart start to race. Here we go again.

**What will be behind door number two? And three for that matter? Find out in the next chapter!**

**Please review, I absolutely love to hear your thoughts. If criticizing, please be as nice as possible. =)**

**Read on!**


	13. Ch 13: L 2: Ophidiophobia

**School is not fun. =( That's all I have to say.**

**Please Enjoy! =)**

**Danielle's POV**

I had no idea what to expect after the stone lions. I couldn't remember what we'd learned about the gladiators in Ancient Rome. Hadn't they fought _each other? _They weren't going to make the eight of us fight each other, were they?

But nothing came out of that door that told us to take up weapons against one another. No, nothing like that happened at all. In fact, the creature that emerged from the darkness was almost as far from human as a creature could be.

As the second door creaked to a stop, opened all the way, a pair of glaring yellow eyes appeared within the shadows and soon they came shooting towards us, attached to the body of a large, snake like beast. Or at least a snake is what it resembled at first. As the creature stepped further and further out of the door, I realized that it had four legs. Snakes didn't have legs. I'm getting the feeling that this thing was in fact some sort of super reptile.

"What is that?" Kyle asked, (Well someone had to!). At the sound of his voice, the reptilian beast narrowed its eyes in Kyle's direction and flicked its large, forked tongue out.

"Wait, it's staring at us. How come it didn't…" Danny began to phrase exactly what I was thinking, but his words were cut off the by the creature emitting a loud, threatening hissing noise before lunging at us. The beast was far enough away that all eight of us were able to scatter before its large body came barreling through where we had just stood moments ago. We watched the creature careen into the colleseum wall, unable to stop itself from sliding forward.

"What were you saying Danny?" Seth called over the echoing sounds of the creature slamming against the wall.

"How come it only reacted when Kyle started talking? It was looking straight at the majority of the group," Danny finished his statement from before. The reptile hissed again, recoiling back from the now destroyed stonewall as it regained its bearings.

"I think that it might be... WATCH OUT!" Chris exclaimed as the creature's thick, spiked tail came swishing around on the ground at my team members who had jumped to the opposite side of the arena. Seth, Sam, Kyle, and Chris all dodged the attack right in the knick of time. That tail was so huge, it could definitely knock us over in one go; that thing was thicker than any one of our heights!

"You think it might be what?" Danny called over. But we never heard the answer because the monster was now turning its attention back to us. It lunged its ugly head in our direction, letting out another deafening noise that was now more of a screeching roar than a hiss. I could feel the heat from its breath from where I was standing. I hoped that thing couldn't breathe fire.

"Guys, we've gotta take this thing down," I said quickly, watching the reptilian thing pulling back to gain momentum for the jump it was about to take at us. "How do you suppose we do that?" The creature lunged forward, its jaws open wide to snatch us up. Its teeth must've been at least three feet tall, and were sharper than any other weapon I'd ever seen before.

I slid off to the left, just narrowly escaping the creature's mouth. I felt the monster's jaw hit the ground, sending shock waves through the dusty ground. I looked up to see if everyone was all right. Cathy had slid over with me, and the reptile had kicked up so much dust from its attack that I couldn't see any of the others.

"GUYS!" I cried. "WHAT'S GOING ON?!" It was silent. Cathy and I exchanged glances. Was it bad that no one was responding? Were they too far away to hear us? Or were they unable to answer?

"Where are they?" I asked.

"Hopefully on the other side," Cathy replied, trying to peer through the heavy screen of dust that was obstructing our vision. "Hopefully not hurt. Or eaten." I nodded in response, swallowing hard and trying to forget about that second option.

I attempted to take a look through the dusty haze in front of us. As peered through the dust, I noticed something. Something that was reflecting the light. Was that just the sun playing tricks in the dust swirls? Or was it holes breaking through the dust, letting the light shine through?

"DANIELLE, RUN!" Cathy exclaimed, and just as she said it, the beast dove forward from the screen and sprang forward, ready to catch us in its mouth again. A scream escaped my lips as I rolled to the right, just narrowly escaping again. I guess both of my theories were wrong; those reflections were coming from the beast's eyes. I pushed myself up to my feet, attempting to run through the dust. But the creature was closer to me than I thought, and one step from its giant feet sent enough tremors through the ground to send me toppling to my feet again. I squeaked once more as I fell to my knees, hearing the reptile hiss and direct its attention back at me.

My heart was racing faster than it had ever raced before. Fear started running through my veins. I tried to stand up again, but just fell right back to my shaking knees. Had I felt this while fighting the lions? Or was it just now? I couldn't tell. All that I knew was that I was scared out of my mind with legs made of lead-filled Jell-O.

"DANIELLE! CATHY! IT'S BLIND! MAKE AS LITTLE NOISE AS POSSIBLE!" I heard Christie's voice carry through the haze. I held my breath, trying to be as silent as possible. But it was too late, the beast already knew where I was. Its head appeared in the dust, yellow eyes locked onto me. I stared up at the creature, eyes wide. My breaths were coming short and ragged. This was bad.

The monster approached me slowly, flicking its tongue in my direction, locking its aim on the little human girl kneeling out in the open on the dusty ground. I started moving backwards, sliding my knees across the slightly marred colleseum floor. But it wouldn't help; that beast would get me no matter how far back I moved. I watched the creature lift its head back, preparing to make its final dive at me. I closed my eyes, sucking in one last breath and holding on to it.

I heard the reptile's earsplitting roar, but I didn't feel its mouth surround me. I didn't feel its teeth tear into my body, ripping me apart. Instead, I felt a pair of arms wrap around me and lift me away. Tremors rocked the world again; the beast must've just made its move, swiping at the ground that was now empty. I kept my eyes closed until I felt my body being lowered to the ground.

My eyes snapped open, staring straight into a pair of golden brown orbs. _Seth. _

"I've heard that if you aren't afraid of spiders, you're afraid of snakes," he said quickly. "My guess is that you fit perfectly into that category. Or you're just not great at being quiet." I nodded, unable to form words at the moment. If it were any other circumstance, I would've had some sort of retort to that last statement. But Seth was right, I guess I did have a paralyzing fear of snakes. And that wasn't a good thing at a time like this…

**Cathy's POV**

Man, this thing is huge! If that creature just takes a step, you have to hold onto your balance really hard to keep yourself standing. And that's not easy when you also have to think about how to bring that giant monster to its knees.

"Nice distraction, Seth!" Kyle called as the male yellow member ran silently over to the frozen Danielle and snatched her out of harms way just in time. _Kyle! I thought we all knew that you had to be quiet!_ I exclaimed mentally, hoping that some how the two of us would just grow a telepathic bond or something. _They said it was blind, which means that it can _hear_ even better than…_ But then it hit me. The thought Kyle must've had to make such a move.

The monster turned its ugly head away from the ground it had just attacked, hoping to take a bite out of Danielle but receiving nothing but dirt. Its unseeing eyes landed on Kyle.

"That's right, you slippery, snake thing. Come and get me," my other half taunted. A low hiss crawled out from the depths of the beast's throat as it lowered its body and slunk closer to the sound of Kyle's voice. It was getting smarter, learning how we fought. It may not have been able to see us, but it had failed enough times to know that we were quick and that it would have to be just as swift and even more unpredictable to snag us.

"Come on you… you… whatever you are," Kyle cooed as though he were calling a small, fuzzy animal to him. I peered between the creature's legs and tail, trying to catch a glimpse of what Kyle was doing. I couldn't see the blonde boy, but I could see Sam, ready with a spear in her hand. Of course! Half of the team had been on the other side of the arena by the weapons! And while me and Danielle had kept the monster busy for a moment, they'd taken the chance to formulate a plan! Sometimes, I just wanted to hug those guys.

"Who's a good giant reptile monster? You are!" Kyle added. His voice had more echo to it; he must be walking backwards. The reptile certainly was walking towards Kyle's voice, still creeping slowly, evaluating his position and those of his targets.

"Anytime now guys," Kyle said, sounding just a little bit nervous. There was a slight pause, as though he were listening to something. Then he added, "Okay. Let's see. Ummm… reptile puns… reptile puns. Uh, I got nothing. You know any good reptile puns, you cold-blooded thing-a-ma-bob? Oh hey! Do you guys think if we chopped its head off, three more would grow back in its place?"

I started to question Kyle's tactics. At first, I understood the taunting. But now, he seemed to be babbling senselessly. Did I ever do that?

A loud screech from the monster shattered my thoughts as well as my eardrums. As my hands instinctively covered my ears, I peeked up at the reptile to see a spear sticking out of one of its feet. The beast screech again. I assume that someone drove a second weapon into its other foot.

"We're getting him! Danny, aim for… Danny?" Kyle's voice was still the only one ringing through the arena. I guess that was part of the plan: play to the monster's hearing by only having one person speak. "Dan, what's wrong?... Oooohhhh, I got it. Well, then give Seth that spear and we'll be… well okaaay then. You don't have to yell at me. Sheesh!"

"KYLE!" I heard Christie shout just before the creature roared and plunged its head down to where my counterpart must've been standing. Another scream, a human one, pierced the arena but was soon drowned out as the monster howled again and drove its head towards the ground a second time, taking aim for another part of the field.

"GET IT, DANNY!" Sam's voice carried urgently over the sound of the reptile thrashing about. The ground had started to shake again. I saw the tail move out of the corner of my eye. I wasn't safe here. I glanced back to find Danielle still crouched down over by the wall that Seth had set her down behind. I ran to her. If need be, I would run over and distract the beast away from my friends. But for right now, I knew I could help by protecting a teammate who really needed a friend at the moment. It's not everyday that you almost get eaten alive by a ginormous reptile thing.

**Chris' POV**

"DANNY, THROW THE SPEAR!" Seth exclaimed, jumping back as the creature took another step forward, landing its massive foot just inches away from Seth's body. I looked over at my best friend. His face had gone pale, his eyes were wide, and I could see his whole body shaking slightly. This wasn't totally new to me, I'd seen him frightened before. But it had never been like this.

I knew he couldn't do it. And I think I may be the only one who's realized that.

Danny threw the spear upwards, aiming for the creature's chest. He missed his initial target, but the weapon still pierced the monster's leg, causing it to howl in pain yet again before swooping its neck down again with its mouth open to catch anything in its path. We escaped its grasp yet again.

"Guy, what're we gonna do?" Kyle asked, sensing that the plan was starting to unravel. "Anyone have any ideas?"

"Keep it distracted. I've got one," I answered as quietly as I could. I was lucky, the beast didn't react to my voice, but I wouldn't have noticed anyway.

I turned around and ran towards the room of swords, my eyes locking on the first weapon laying closest to the door. My hands grasped the cool metal of the handle, lifting the blade with ease. Yes, this thing was heavy, but it wouldn't be too difficult to throw. Aiming would be the hardest part, but taking a few extra seconds to calculate an accurate target hopefully wouldn't hurt.

I heard footsteps behind me and looked up to see that Seth had followed.

"Would your plan involve any extra weapons?" he asked, nodding towards the silver blade in my hands.

"The more the merrier," I replied. Seth nodded and moved towards the room as I darted back to where the others were holding the monster off. Kyle was still taunting the reptilian beast, but Christie and Sam had added in too. They were trying to confuse it no doubt. Clever thinking.

"Chris? What're you doing?" Sam asked, glancing at me as I ran under the creature's large stomach, dodging its huge legs as it stumbled around trying to decided who to attack.

"Taking my chances," I answered, meeting her eyes for just a second. She looked worried, but also slightly pleased. She trusted that I knew what I was doing. And with that thought in mind, I locked my gaze onto the spot we were aiming for: the creature's heart.

Sam, Kyle, and Christie kept the reptile busy, each talking in turn so that the creature remained in the same place while only moving its head in their direction. Danny joined them and so did Seth.

I stared up at the monster's chest above me. Doubt edged into my mind, what if I didn't hit it just right? What if this monster's heart was actually in a different part of its body? What if one sword wasn't enough?

I shook my head. I couldn't think about that now. I had a job to do, and I was going to try even if I failed. I concentrated on the spot I was to aim at, when something caught my attention that I hadn't noticed before. There was a small spot of darker scales on the beast's chest. They stuck out slightly against its light underbelly, but you wouldn't noticed it unless you were looking hard. A light bulb lit up in my brain: that was the spot I had to hit.

I took a deep breath, glancing at the silver sword in my hand. I only had one shot at this. I pulled my right arm back, with the tip of the blade slanting up towards my target. The beast gave another roar, sounding if anything confused and frustrated. I charged my right arm forward and let go of the sword.

The blade soared through the air and pierced through the dark spot in the creature's chest. Another screech erupted from the monster, this time one of complete agony. Direct hit.

"DID WE GET HIM?" I heard Kyle call as the creature continued to moan, staggering around a bit as its body started to shut down. That wasn't good. In a few seconds that thing would fall, and from where I was standing…

I took off from under the monster and made it out just as its colossal body crashed to the ground. I looked up, finding Danny and Sam staring at the beast's body in pleasant shock. It was finished. There was nothing more to worry about. With the second challenge at least. There was still the question of that third door and what was going to be behind it…

"CHRIS, WATCH…" _Slam!_

**Danny's POV**

And just like that, the reptile's large tail came sailing down, pinning my best friend to the arena floor.

"No!" I shouted, racing forward. Sam ran with me, and together we tried to push the large, scaly tail off of our blue member. Luckily, it was the end of the tail, the smallest section and the two of us were able to get it off.

"Chris! Are you okay?" Sam asked, moving into concerned leader mode as she knelt down by the blunette. He opened his eyes slowly, staring up at both of us from where he was still lying on the ground.

"Yeah, I think I'm fine," he said, pushing himself up into a sitting position, swaying slightly. "Don't try that at home." I laughed. Of all the people to make a joke at such a serious moment, I would not expect it to be him.

"Dude, you just saved our lives," I said, kneeling down by them too. "You just threw the sword that brought the creature down. That was awesome!" Chris smiled over at me. A noise that sounded like the whistling of wind caught our attention, drawing it back to the body of the reptilian creature as if suddenly disintegrated into nothing before out eyes. And before we had time to think about that, the third door started creaking open.

"It's show time," Sam said, standing up and staring intently at the door. Chris and I followed her lead.

"Oh man," Chris said quietly, losing his balance as soon as he stood up. I caught his arm.

"What's wrong?" I asked urgently.

"That hurt more than I'd thought," he replied, sounding like he was in a decent amount of pain. I felt a pang of guilt.

"I'm sorry. This is my fault. If I'd been able to kill that creature like we'd planned, you never would've been in there and gotten hit," I remarked bitterly. Curse fear, curse it!

"Danny, it's all right. I know what its like to be paralyzed by fear and no one's blaming you for it," Chris said in response. "We all understand. And it's definitely not your fault I got hit. That one was all me." I smile at him. He smiled back, but I could see the pain in his expression. It was gonna be hard for him to continue fighting through this level, but I could tell that he was willing to. I turned my gaze over to the final door and I felt my eyes widen in surprise.

Our last challenge wasn't a fearsome creature like the last two. Instead, emerging from that last black door was an army of skeleton soldiers. Well this was going to be fun. NOT! 

**And thus there will be another chapter on level 2. I was hoping to finish it up here, but then I just started rolling with the reptile thing and ran with it. Speaking of, I got the idea for that creature from the Hydra in Disney's **_**Hercules**_**. That's where the three head thing came from. Tis a wonderful movie. Watch it If you haven't seen it before.**

**Anyway, anyone reading my other story **_**Kryptonite,**_** I'm stuck. What should the group be going to fight in the next chapter? I don't know… any ideas would be very much appreciated friends! =)**

**Please review! I love to hear from you guys!**

**Read on! **


	14. Ch 14: L 2: Gladiators

**I am so sorry that this has taken so long. School, theater, homework… it all just takes up time and takes it away from writing. And this chapter is long.**

**So, the final part of level 2! Finally! =D**

**Jouissez, s'il vous pla****ît!**

**Danny's POV**

The skeleton soldiers walked through the giant door and stood facing us. There was no doubt that these guys could see us. And they seriously out numbered us. This was gonna be a problem.

"Anyone got any weapons on them?" Seth asked, his hands empty. I looked around. We were all empty handed after launching everything we had at that crazy reptile beast. I repeat, this was going to be a problem.

"We've got nothing," Sam answered for the group as the leader of the skeleton army took a step in front of the company, pointing at us and whispering something to troops. I knew he was the leader by the red armor he wore. The rest of the soldiers were in blue. And on the other hand, the one wearing red looked at least five times creepier than the rest of them.

"Well, they seem to be strategizing, so let's do the same," Seth said quickly, turning to the rest of us. "We've got no weapons and it would be hard to get over there fast enough. Prepare for hand-to-hand combat, guys." I nodded and started walking towards the others when I heard an almost imperceptible sigh behind me. Turning back, I noticed how Chris' eyes squeezed shut in pain.

"Guys, I don't think Chris can do this," I said, turning and looking directly at Sam. She was the leader I usually turned to and now made no exception. I looked back again at Chris, and I could tell that he wanted to argue back. He wanted to help us fight through this, not sit out and watch from the side.

"Well yeah, he just got crushed by a giant lizard tail. I don't think Superman could even rebound from that in so little time," Christie said in response before he had the chance to say anything. I raised my eyebrows at him, waiting to see if he would still fight back. But he didn't, nodding in consent.

"And considering how you were the one that brought that giant monster to the ground, I think it'd be fine if you didn't directly fight this round," Seth added, trying to make things sound even. An excited shout came from the skeleton army. They were ready to fight. I glanced over at them. The general was still addressing his men, but he was facing us now. We didn't have much time left.

"I can analyze them from the sides. Find their weak spots so you guys can work on stopping them," Chris suggested quickly.

"Perfect. That'll definitely help," Sam replied, smiling over at our blue member. "But that doesn't solve the problem of…"

"Hey guys, missing something?" Cathy asked as she moved over to us in one step with her elastic like legs. Her arms were carrying seven swords.

"Cathy!" I exclaimed. "You're a genius!"

"Thanks, but it was actually Danielle's idea," Cathy replied, nodding back towards where my other half was guarding the door to the sword room. "She'll come to join us as soon as we're sure the skeleton dudes aren't heading for our ammunition stores." I smiled, Cathy's militant action terms amusing me. I don't think I'd ever heard anyone use the words 'ammunition stores' and 'dudes' in the same sentence.

"Great. So we have our basic strategy," Seth said.

"Which would be what?" Kyle asked. "I've got that Danielle's puppy guarding the weapons and Chris is taking notes on the sides. That leaves what the rest of us are doing." The skeletons gave another roar, raising their sharp weapons in the air.

"Whatever brings them down," Seth answered, grabbing one of the swords Cathy was holding and preparing for battle. The rest of us followed his lead, standing tall in our best battle stance. We were squaring off. All that mattered now was who would make the first move.

The skeleton general had his eyes trained on Seth. I guessed that they'd picked him as the leader of our squad, and that the general would be aiming for him. I started leaning closer towards Seth to tell him that when I heard Sam whisper, "Seth, the general's coming for you. Watch out."

"Got it," Seth whispered back.

"Sam, you stole my line," I muttered quietly. Sam smiled. "We'll be talking about this later." She started shaking her head at that.

"Focus, Danny," she replied. And sure enough, as soon as those words were formed, the skeleton army gave a third shout and started to charge at us. Battle mode kicked in and I lunged back wards into a fighting position. I was ready to give them a piece of The Danny.

**Sam's POV**

The skeletons were rushing at us now, ready to let the battle begin. Danny and Seth both lunged backwards with their swords, but my initial reaction was simply to hold mine out horizontally in front of me. I guess it didn't really matter, as long as we took these soldiers down.

The first line of soldiers finally reached us. And just as I'd thought, the general went right for Seth. Not one other solider went for my counterpart, it was the general only. The two of them moved backwards, away from the rest of the fight. We were down yet another member.

But there wasn't time to think about that as the skeletal soldiers rushed us. This first wave all carried swords like ours, except for the fact that they were made of a metal black as the night sky. Ours glittered in the sunlight, but theirs seemed to repel the light away. Their hollow, dark eye sockets held the same illusion.

A circle of skeletons formed around me, trying to slice me to pieces with their blades. But they were slower than I was. I could dodge their shots faster than they could dodge mine. The only problem was that my sword wasn't leaving any lasting damage on them. They'd get scratched by my blade, sometimes enough to stagger backwards for a moment, but then they'd be right back attacking me.

I held my ground, damaging them enough to hold them off. But I knew this couldn't go on forever. These creatures were stronger than they appeared. And there were even more that hadn't advanced on us yet. I wondered how the others were holding up as I kicked a skeleton square in the rib cage. The bones snapped on impact and the soldier fell back, clutching its chest. Finally, I'd found a way to really injure these guys.

I turned around and sailed my sword at two soldiers running at me before turning back to the injured one. To my horror, I watched the skeleton man stand up straight again as his broken ribs healed themselves right in front of my eyes. The cracks morphed back into smooth bone and the ribs took back their original shape.

My eyes widened in horror as a devilish smile appeared on the soldier's mouth. _Chris, _please_ find a weakness to these guys! And fast!_

**Christie's POV**

So I'm not much of a one-on-one combat person. In fact, I'm generally the total opposite. Not one for strength, I tend to resort to using technology as my weapon. Obviously, I'm way out of my element here. And to be honest, it's kinda awesome.

A group of five skeletons circled me, coming at me with their sharp, obsidian swords. I held my own blade out, lashing back at whichever sword was trying to hit me. The sharp _clink_ of the metals meeting filled the air around me, kicking up the adrenaline running through my veins.

The soldiers kept advancing, pushing me backwards as we fought. I felt like the hero's side kick in an adventure movie, holding off the villain's army while the hero stormed the castle to save the princess or have a showdown with said villain.

One of the skeletons lunged at my side, pricking me with his sword. I stumbled to the right, my hand instinctively flying to my left side. I looked down at the spot he'd hit, but found it unbroken. It would take a lot to rip an MBC suit, and I guess a sword wouldn't cut it. But even though my suit wasn't broken, I could feel at least a bruise forming on my side.

I lashed back at the soldier who'd pricked me, slicing at his shoulder blade and dismembering his right arm. The skeleton's arm and sword clattered to the ground. The soldier stared at it in disbelief while the rest of the army advanced on me even further. I had a strategy now, though.

Dodging their swooping swords, I aimed for the soldiers' shoulders and knees. I'd have to knock out at least one vital part of their body to get them seduced for enough time to keep them at bay. I swung at one skeleton's knees, slicing both in half and causing the skeletal body to collapse down on itself. It was amazing how easily the bones crashed and cracked as they fell. It was hard to imagine that these creatures really were that fragile.

I thrust my sword again and again at the soldiers, finally leaving their bodies either cracked into miscellaneous bones or missing everything but their ribs, vertebra, and heads. These five couldn't fight any more. I had won. But this battle was far from over. There was at least one more wave of soldiers still to come. But for now, I'd defeated the skeletons who'd chosen to come after me.

I turned to my right to see Cathy cornered by a gang of skeletons. I started running towards her to help her fight them off, when a strong hand took a hold of my hair and pulled me backwards with enough strength to pull that reptilian creature back by a leash.

**Kyle's POV**

"Get back you fiends!" I cried, swinging my sword at the circle of skeletons that continued to close in around me. I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to say, but I felt like it was appropriate in this situation.

I continued to slice my blade through the air, aiming for soldiers' back bones; it was the vertebra that kept the body standing up in its normal position, so wouldn't knocking it over would knock the whole body down too, right? And so far, my plan had proved successful. If I hit the right vertebra, the entire line would collapse and take the rest of the upper body with it. Sure, the legs were still running around aimlessly, but they weren't gonna hurt anyone.

Finally, I reduced the entire circle to nothing but body-less legs. And that meant that now I had to destroy the harmless legs. So I did, leaving them as nothing but rubble on the dusty arena floor. I brushed my hand across my forehead, brushing my hair back, and took a look around. Everyone seemed to have devised their own strategy against the soldiers.

I glanced over to where Seth and the general had gone, but I couldn't see them anywhere. They must've gotten into one of those epic moving battles that somehow lead the fighters to some totally new location. Yep, that had to be the case.

Danielle was still guarding the weapons, but she had dawned a sword and was defending the weapon room against three skeletons. I could tell that she was back to acting like herself. And from one look, I could tell that Danny was too. I smiled, enjoying that small moment of happiness for my friends.

Then I heard a scream and turned to see one of the soldiers pulling Christie back by her hair. The smile left my face and I felt anger filled where happiness had recently been. I swung my sword up over my shoulder and started running towards the solider hurting my girl. He wasn't gonna get out of this one alive, or I guess as alive as a skeleton can be.

**Cathy's POV**

These guys were so much more fun to fight than the last two challenges. It was more one on one, more intense. And it was exhilarating. Swinging my sword around, clashing metal on metal with the swords of my opponents and keeping them at bay until I was able to slice away at one of their connecting points, like a shoulder or a knee. I'd noticed Christine doing something like that, and it looked effective.

I took a stab at a soldier, cracking its ribs down the center. I laughed triumphantly, having wounded the guy. But he wasn't, instead, the bones healed themselves before my eyes and mended back into shape. Well then. I hadn't been expecting that.

"GUYS! THEY CAN HEAL IF YOU ONLY CRACK THEIR BONES! YOU HAVE TO DISMEMBER THEI LIMBS AT THE BASE IF YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO HARM THEM!" Chris called out, his voice echoing throughout the arena. "GO FOR THE VERTABRA!" Well, I figured the first part out on my own, but that last thing was extremely helpful.

I lunged towards the soldier I'd just scratched, aiming for his backbone and slicing it through the center. The soldier's body fell to the ground, cracking into pieces that couldn't grow back together. The legs hadn't been destroyed by that hit, so I slashed my sword at them and left them just as destroyed as the rest of its body. I glanced down at the remains of the skeleton then looked up at the awestruck soldiers who had been in the process of running at me.

I felt myself smiling.

"Who's scared now, you gangling gladiators?" I asked challengingly. I think the adrenaline was starting to get to my head, but that was okay for right now. And thank goodness for vocab quizzes!

**Seth's POV**

I knew what I had to do. I knew that I'd have to destroy the general, then the rest of the soldiers would stand down. They couldn't act without their leader. And he'd decided that it was my job to bring him down.

As soon as the soldier had come at us, the general had singled me out and the two of us had started engaging in a one on one battle. And without realizing it, the two of us ended up on a flight of stone steps. I was a step above the skeleton, which left us at even height because the soldier was taller than me. The sounds of the swords clashing echoed around the small stairwell. I had my left hand braced on the cool stonewall while my right hand kept the general back. I started climbing the steps until eventually I emerged on the first level of the collesuem seats.

We were now ten feet above the others; too far away to see what strategies they were using to beat these things. So I guess I had to stick with simply preventing his sword from hitting me.

The general's jaw was set in a sort of arrogant grin, which I knew was theoretically impossible but this wasn't Earth we were fighting on here. Maybe skeletons here were a common living being and could physically move their mouths.

I spun around quick, building up momentum to swing at my opponent and nail him in the side of his skull. The blow left a large crack in the bone and the general staggered to the side, crashing into the first row of stone seats. I'd gotten him. I wound my arm back to bring a final blow upon the general.

"GUYS! THEY CAN HEAL IF YOU ONLY CRACK THEIR BONES! YOU HAVE TO DISMEMBER THEI LIMBS AT THE BASE IF YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO HARM THEM! GO FOR THE VERTABRA!" Chris' voice called out suddenly. My eyes widened and I couldn't help but gasp at watching the crack on the general's skull heal itself. The skeleton gave another twisted smile and pushed himself up from the stone seat, sword drawn. But I had a strategy now.

I made a sweep for the soldier's backbone, but he swerved away from my blade and took a swipe at me instead. I dodged it, rolling on the ground to the other side of my opponent. I rolled to my knees, taking a backwards thrash for the center vertebra. I knicked them ever so slightly before the general whirled around and slammed his sword down at me from above his head.

I held my blade horizontally across my body, blocking the general's sword from slicing into my body. I guess he'd heard Chris' warning as well. He was smarter than the other soldiers, I was sure of it. But I could take him.

My opponent continued to push down on my sword with his, pushing it back so that my own blade was almost touching my chest. I had an idea, and if it was going to work, I'd have only one shot to do this and I'd have to do it fast.

I kicked my left leg straight at the general's backbone, which was completely unprotected because his sword was still locked with mine. I kicked the vertebra right out from underneath each other. The grin on the skeleton's face faded as his body collapsed into nothing but a pile of bones falling on top of me. I dropped my sword, covering my face to protect from the impact of the bones. When I felt that they had all fallen, I sat up and noticed that the legs hadn't fallen apart yet. So I gave one strong kick to each of its knees and sent those bones toppling to the ground too.

I'd done it. I'd bested the skeleton's general. But I was the only one who knew that. The second wave of skeleton soldiers gave a battle scream and I realized that I'd have to let them know that it was over. I stood up, snatching the general's majestic, obsidian sword and holding it above my head.

"I'VE BESTED YOUR GENERAL," I called, listening to how my voice reverberated around the arena. Everyone below me stopped. By the looks of it, I'd said something just in time. The second wave had already spread out, surrounding each member of my team. Those soldiers were now watching me fearfully. "WHICH MEANS YOU HAVE NO POWER TO FIGHT ANY FURTHER!"

"AND I THINK IT MEANS THAT YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CONTROL THEM NOW!" Danny called from where two skeletons were in the middle of pulling him in two separate directions by the arms.

And on impact after Danny's words, I realized that he was right as each of the skeletons knelt down on one knee towards me. I was now their leader. And I head the power to tell them who to attack next. Or who not to attack in my case…

"OKAY THEN. NOW THAT I'M YOUR GENERAL," I began, not really sure how to address an army of skeletons. "I COMMAND YOU TO RETREAT OR LET MY TRUE SOLDIERS DEFEAT YOU. IT'S YOUR CHOICE." The skeletons exchanged looks, then bowed towards me and stood up. They walked back towards the door they'd entered and disappeared.

"LEVEL TWO COMPLETE. PREPARE FOR DEVIRTUALIZATION," the voice from before announced before the world around us materialized into nothing and then back into the field we'd first appeared in. Three hours had passed according to the clock.

"So we've completed two levels in about four hours. We're making good time," Danielle said, nodding approvingly.

"Don't hold your breath. These levels could get even trickier as we go along," Sam warned. I nodded, thinking the same thing. "Is everyone alright?"

"I'm good," Danny answered first.

"Same here. Totally recovered from fear-shock," Danielle replied with a smile.

"Surprisingly, I feel fine," Chris answered. "I don't feel like I was crushed by a giant snake tail at all."

"Maybe it's something with the whole devirtualization stuff. Maybe it heals us back to our original state, kind of like how when we enter the door we're in our normal clothes but when we're in the level we're suddenly in our MBC suits," Christie suggested.

"I think that sounds possible," I said. "And I think it will help us survive through these levels."

"Speaking of levels, ready to start the next one?" Sam asked. I met her eyes. They looked just like mine, and I could read them like a book.

"Let's do this," I replied.

**So I think this is the longest chapter I've ever written for any story. Ever. Wow. No wonder it took so long. **

**Comments? Criticisms? Questions? Fashion tips? Review please! You know I love to hear from you guys! =)**

**Read on!**


	15. Ch 15: L 3: Horror Heroes

**Warning: Don't read in the dark or at night. I actually kinda scared myself writing it because it was nighttime. Unless you have a low fear tolerance, save it for the day.**

**In honor of Halloween coming up this month, I decided to switch around some of the levels I had planned. (Actually, I didn't want to write the one I had planned for three and wanted to do something spooky cause of Halloween).**

**So without any further ado, enjoy!**

**Danielle's POV**

The eight of us moved towards the next door. Sam touched the handle lightly, waiting for our wonderful voice to declare the hint for the next level.

"LEVEL THREE CLUE: STICK TOGETHER WHENEVER POSSIBLE. KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED, BECAUSE YOU'RE ALWAYS BEING WATCHED," the voice announced.

"Well that's comforting," the female yellow member said as she pushed the door open. The eight of us walked through the colorless portal into what appeared to be a normal looking living room. Soft, brown carpeting covered the floors and the walls were painted a deep forest green color. There was a large bay window with maroon curtains cutting off the corners of the glass. Small lamps placed on end tables gave the room a warm glow.

"Well that's quite a change in scenery," I commented, placing my right hand on my hip and not feeling my MBC suit. "Hey, we're still in our regular clothes!"

"Maybe we won't need our MBC skills for this level?" Cathy suggested, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well that certainly makes it harder to cheat," Christie said in response as the voice started to give us our instructions.

"THE TIME NOW IS FIVE O'CLOCK PM. THE TIMER IS SET FOR 6 O'CLOCK AM. YOU MUST SURVIVE THE NEXT 25 HOURS BY WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY IN THIS HOUSE AND THE PROPERTY AROUND IT," the voice began giving us our task. "LEAVING THE PROPERTY RESULTS IN AUTOMATIC DEVIRUALIZATION AND THUS GIVES YOUR TEAM AN EVEN SMALLER CHANCE OF SUCCEEDING PAST THE LEVEL.

"GETTING CAUGHT DOES NOT MEAN AUTOMATIC DEVIRTUALIZATION, BUT ANY ACT THAT WOULD RESULT IN DEATH IS A MEANS FOR DEVIRTUALIZATION."

"Wait, did the voice just say anything that would result in death?" Kyle asked incredulously. But no one had the time to reply because the good old voice just kept on talking.

"YOU MAY USE ANY MEANS YOU DEEM FIT TO SURVIVE THESE NEXT 26 HOURS. THERE WILL BE EIGHT MAJOR OPPOENTS, ONE DESIGNATED TO EACH MEMBER OF YOUR TEAM. IF EVERY MEMBER OF YOUR TEAM CAN DEFEAT THEIR DESINGATED OPPONENT BEFORE THE TIME LIMIT IS UP, AUTOMATIC VICTORY WILL BE GRANTED TO YOUR TEAM. THERE WILL BE A NUMBER OF ADDITIONAL OPPONENTS. THE MAJOR OPPONENTS WILL BE LET OUT WHEN THE SUN VANISHES. YOU HAVE 26 HOURS. SURVIVE OR FAIL."

And that was all we had to go off of. I met Seth's eyes, then Kyle's, then Christie's. I locked eyes with my best friend for a second, noticing an interesting glint in them.

"I'm so confused," Kyle moaned, holding his face in his hands and shaking his head. "What do they want us to do?"

"I guess we have to fight something again," Seth answered. "Except now we're in a house instead of a Roman colleseum."

"Which pretty much means that there are more things to throw at the things coming after us," Danny added.

"I don't know guys. I mean, yes, it's obvious that we have to fight something again. But I feel like there's a catch this time," Sam said, standing with her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed in thought. "Our hint was to stay together because someone is always watching. How does that relate to what task is?"

Christie's eyes left mine. I followed her gaze to find her eyes now training themselves into the crystal blue orbs of her counterpart. And by the look on both of their faces, I knew that they'd figured something out.

"It's a horror movie," Christie said, looking up at each of us. "It all makes sense. The bad guys always seems to know where the good guys are, thus there are eyes always watching. In the movies when the groups split up, they get killed off faster, thus why we have to stay together. The major opponents won't be let out till sundown because suspense is always heightened when it's dark. And the challenge will be over at six a.m. because that's when the sun rises and everything usually gets better. Does that makes sense?" I saw the two yellow members exchange glances.

"That makes perfect sense. Excellent reasoning," Seth replied with a nod to both blue members. "And that means that we have a little time to plan how we're going to survive this because it's not sundown yet. The sun usually sets when?"

"At around 6:30 I believe," Sam answered.

"Then that gives us an hour and a half to strategize," Seth said, taking a seat on the maroon armchair behind him. "Take a seat everyone. This is about to get serious."

**Cathy's POV**

"Okay, so who's seen the most horror movies here?" Seth asked once we were all seated. Danny and Danielle raised their hands at the same time.

"Figures," Sam muttered. "Can the two of you give us a break down of the basic types of horror movies and what kind of opponents they might have waiting for us?" The red members looked at each other.

"Sure," they answered simultaneously.

"So we're start with your basic monster movie. The villain is some sort of monster and basically goes around hurting, killing, or eating people. Sometimes it's out of anger, sometimes it's for revenge, but usually it's our of monster nature," Danny began their explanation. "So we'll probably have at least two or three monster opponents. Good thing about them is that they always have a weakness, most of them pretty well known. Like vampires and garlic or werewolves and silver."

"The next type we'll discuss is murder movies," Danielle took over. "That's where the bad guy is a psych killer. They usually wear masks, or just look plain creepy and they have a tendency to not die when you try to kill them. The best thing to do with them is to hold them off and try to hide, because I don't think we have the police at our disposal here."

"We could always try and see if they'd pick up," Sam suggested. "There's probably a phone somewhere in this house."

"Remember that for when they're done. That could be crucial," Chris noted before nodding at the red members to continue.

"So you have your monsters, your killers, and then there's the ever present supernatural villains," Danny continued. "These are your ghosts, specters, demons, shadows, et cetera. Basically, they may not be substantially real. They could only be tangible when they feel like it, and some may only be visible to those they wish to attack."

"Kind of like the Radars," Kyle interrupted.

"They could be exactly like the Radars," Danielle nodded. "And I feel like if any of those were our major opponents, they'd be the really intense ones, like the demons or something."

"Oh definitely. They wouldn't give us some wimpy ghost as a major villain," Danny agreed, shaking his head.

"Wow. You can break down horror movies but you can't remember the vocab words for one chapter?" Sam asked.

"It's all a matter of deciding what's important to remember in life," Danny answered. "And let's face it, what I just told you will probably save all of our lives tonight."

"He's right. Horror movies can get really intense," Danielle added. "And another thing, don't let whatever these things are freak you out. When you start freaking out, they get the upper hand. Especially with the killers."

I felt a shiver go up my spine. How was I going to survive through this level if just talking about horror movies was freaking me out?

"Okay. So don't freak out. That's rule one," Seth stated. "Rule two, always stick with as many people as you can. I highly doubt we'll be able to stay together as a group of eight…"

"Yeah, it's practically impossible to stay together with more than three people in a horror movie," Danny interjected. "Even three is hard. But the buddy system is a major perk against the bad guys."

"Right. That's why it was part of the hint," Seth agreed. "And the hint brings us back to rule three: never let your guard down. Like Christie said, the bad guys in these movies always seem to know where you are and what you're doing. Never let them take you by surprise. What other rules should we have, horror movie experts?"

"If you're gonna hide, you better hide extremely well. Cause a wimpy hiding spot usually leads to discovery and death," Danny said. "So try to avoid long term hiding if at all possible."

"Also, try to avoid running into areas without exits like basements or upper floors. That's like running into a dead end; they've cornered you and now you can't get out. Don't get yourself into one of those situations," Danielle said.

"Oh, and don't make stupid decisions," Danny responded. "If there's a strange noise coming from behind a door, don't open it. If you think you hear something coming behind you, something probably is following you, so try to get out of there. Curiosity does not kill the cat, guys, it kills stupid people."

"Okay. So we have to stay calm, stay together, stay alert, avoid hiding, avoid dead ends, and avoid stupidity," Christie listed. "Sounds easy enough. But I think I have something to add to the list."

"Go for it," Danny encouraged.

"Try to laugh your way through it," Christie said. "That's how I got through the only horror movie I've ever watched. I was with people who made a joke out of it. I know it can be hard to find humor in scary situations, but try to find something funny. That'll help with keeping calm."

"Good one," Danielle replied with a nod. "She's totally right. And I think those are the pretty basic rules to survive until sunrise. How much time till our monsters start roaming?"

"Forty-five minutes," Seth answered, looking at the clock hung on the wall of the small room.

"Great. Who want to come find a phone with me?" Danielle asked, standing up from the couch.

"I'll go," Sam volunteered, standing up too.

"Let's make it three, just to be safe," Christie said, joining the other two girls.

"Aw, look at our ladies, being all brave," Danny cooed jokingly.

"Yeah, and look who that phrase can easily be reversed on," Christie replied, giving Danny a look. The brunette boy gave her a challenging smile as the rest of us giggled at her remark.

"You're just like him, you know that?" Danny said, pointing towards Chris.

"Really?" Christie asked, widening her eyes. "I had no idea!"

"Come on, we have to go find that phone!" Danielle urged the threesome onwards. They climbed the one stair up to the hallway that lead to the rest of the house.

"If I don't come back, tell my sister I love her!" Christie called back as they disappeared further into the house. And just like that, they were gone. I glanced out the window behind me. The sun was already a tad lower in the sky. Time was running out. I had a funny feeling in my stomach. This was not going to be good.

A hand gently touched my arm, and I whirled around to find Chris watching me worriedly.

"You all right?" he asked quietly. The other boys had started talking about horror movies in detail, and weren't paying any attention to us.

"I'm scared," I admitted, avoiding his eyes. "I'm freaked enough just talking about this stuff. How am I supposed to survive 26 hours of living it?" Chris gently lifted my chin so my eyes met his.

"You're going to be fine," he said softly. "Because I'm not going to let you out of my sight for the next 26 hours. I know I'm not exactly the best protector there ever was, but I can promise you that I won't let any monster, specter, or killer anywhere near you." I nodded. The feeling in my stomach started to disappear, but a new feeling was starting up in my heart.

"Thanks Chris. I trust you," I said, hugging him as best I could manage sitting on a couch. He hugged me back, gentle yet strong enough that I knew he'd never let me down. He's be my hero, if only for the next 26 hours.

**Christie's POV**

"And what do we have in the door on the right, folks? It's the kitchen!" Danielle exclaimed, jumping into the room before Sam and I. She flicked the lights on started scanning the room. Sam and I finally pushed past her and started taking a sweep of the area ourselves.

"There's one!" Sam exclaimed, pointing at the very device we were searching for. She walked over to the black machine and picked up the receiver. She dialed 911 on the keypad and held the machine up to her ear.

In the meantime, Danielle and I took refuge leaning against the island counter. Well actually, Danielle was leaning against the island. I was sitting on it, crisscross applesauce.

"Hello?" Sam asked after a few moments. "Hellooooo? Anyone there?" She pulled the phone away from her ear and clicked the end button. "Nothing. I think the phone might be disconnected."

"Was it beeping all loudly like is does when it's disconnected?" Danielle asked, standing up and moving towards Sam.

"No, but it seems like the call wasn't getting through, giving me reason to believe that the phone for 911 is disconnected," Sam explained. I felt something bump under me.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked, turning serious. I guess my face must've screwed up when I'd felt the bump. Which I'd felt another of.

"I think there's something in this island," I said. "And not your usual pots and pans." Sam and Danielle exchanged glances with each other, and then with me.

"They did say that only the major opponents would be let out at sundown. They never mentioned the additional ones," Sam commented.

**Dun, dun, duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun! **

**CLIFFHANGER! **

**What will happen to our lovely ladies in the kitchen? **

**Find out in the next chapter!**

**Read on!**


	16. Ch 16: L 3: Hide and Shriek

**Oh where does the time go? It's been MONTHS since I updated this. Gosh, I hate losing inspiration. I actually was considering dropping this story until a friend convinced me not too (Thanks Leo!)**

**So, here you go, the now to be continued HERO!  
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**Enjoy!**

**Danielle's POV**

The three of us grew quiet after that. Sam was right: the voice hadn't said anything about when the additional monsters.

"Okay, remember rule number one: stay calm," Sam said, being the natural team leader that she is.

"Right. Then we'll continue on to step two: Christine get off the counter," the blunette said in response, carefully climbing off the top of the island.

"And then we go to step three: find something to fight it with," I added. "Our MBC weapons seem to be off limits," I said, holding up my wrist where my v-com appeared to be deactivated. "So, what is there in a kitchen that you can use to defeat a monster?"

"Good question," Sam replied, opening up a cabinet and pulling out a large, silver pot. "Possible containment unit?"

"Depends on how big this thing is," Christie replied, leafing through a drawer that seemed to be full of silver utensils. "Sharp utensils." I glanced over and quickly pulled her away from the drawer.

"No," I commanded forcefully, pushing her off towards another cabinet. "No sharp things will ever find their way into your hands again. Not if I can help it, anyway."

"Gosh, it was one time," Christie said in response, moving to a cabinet and looking through the dishes that were neatly stacked there.

"She seemed fine with the swords in the last level. What's up?" Sam asked, turning back to look between the two of us.

"We'll tell you later," I said quickly, pulling out two of the knives. "Right now, let's bust us a monster. Christie, get back on the counter and pull open the door."

"I'm only complying because you won't let me touch the sharp things," my best friend mumbled as she carefully climbed back on top of the counter. That's one of the reasons we were friends, I could tell her to climb on top of something containing what could be a deadly monster and she'd do it. Okay, maybe this was the only time Christie had ever done something like this so willingly, but whatever!

"Okay, on three," Sam said, ready with her pot to either smash or snatch. "One…. Two…. THREE!" Christine thrust the door to the island open and then retreated back onto the countertop as Sam and I lunged forward. A giant bat flew out of the counter and out of the kitchen, squeaking the whole time. We watched it fly away, listening to its calls echo deeper into the house.

"That was a pretty big bat," I commented. "Anyone else questioning vampire?"

"They wouldn't have released a vampire yet," Christie replied. "It's far too early for anything so drop dead fun."

"Plus the sun's still out and if it were a real vampire, the reflection from those windows would've fried it," Sam pointed out, gesturing to the windows that encompassed one of the room's walls. "Then again, it was in a hurry, and the sun seems to be setting."

"It's pretty," I said, looking out at the sky filled with orange and pink that faded behind the dark trees that sprung up from the ground. "Hopefully this won't be the last time we see the sun set."

"Oh stop. We're not going to die," Sam replied, giving me a look I was all too used to from Seth. Gosh, it was weird how similar all of us were! "Now back to that phone situation…"

"Yeah. Let's get back to that," I said, looking around the kitchen.

"Right there!" Christie said, jumping off the island to the floor and moving towards the counter next to the oven. A black telephone sat there, looking all perfect and normal. The blue member picked up the receiver and put it to her ear.

"Naturally, the techy finds the technology," I commented, looking over at Sam. She smiled before turning to look into the cabinets again.

"It's funny how things work like that," she added. I nodded, even though I knew she couldn't see me.

"Guys, I think it's disconnected," Christie said, sounding distracted. I looked over to find her pulling on the cord of the phone. She'd already moved the system away from its original position by the wall.

"What're you doing?" I asked, knowing I'd probably regret the answer. She did this at least once a week.

"Trying to find the problem with the phone," Christie responded, still pulling at the cord.

"So you're going to unplug it to make it work?" I asked.

"Yes. Because I can always replug it up here," the blunette answered. I sighed and turned back to Sam.

"Please tell me that's a blue ranger thing," I stated in the form of a question.

"Meaning does Chris do that too?" Sam asked, looking back from the cabinet that held what looked like fancy glasses. "Then yes. He does that a lot. Usually to try to invent something."

"Okay good, it's not just her," I replied, turning back to the window. It was already a lot darker than before. Did the sun always set this fast?

"Uh, guys," Christie said, her voice sounding different than before.

"What?" Sam asked as both of us turned to find the blunette holding a cord with a chewed off end.

"We were definitely disconnected," Christie answered, glancing at the cord then looking over at us. We all shared a glance. What had we gotten ourselves into?

**Danny's POV**

"So, we're at about ten minutes left without major monsters and the girls aren't back. Who thinks they're already down?" I asked.

"Don't even joke about that!" Kyle replied, retracting his legs up onto the couch and wrapping his arms around his knees. "I'm sure they're fine. They're probably just having trouble finding the kitchen."

"Kyle, calm down. It was only a joke," Seth said with a smile. "I know you're a little stressed about this, but…"

"A little stressed? Dude, I'm freaking out!" Kyle exclaimed. "Do you know how many people usually survive these horror movies? Not many!"

"But we'll all make it out of this one," Chris pointed out. "Even if something gets us, we'll just be deactivated from the level. We're not really going to die or become a werewolf or whatever. We're going to all make it out of here just fine." Kyle nodded, but he didn't look convinced.

"So, what kind of opponents do you think we'll have?" Seth asked, addressing me specifically. "We went through the types earlier. How do you think they'll be split up?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say two psychos, three monsters, and three supernaturals," I answered. "There's only so much you can do with a killer that two should be plenty, and there are so many monsters out there. But the real question is, how will we know which one is our specific opponent?"

"They'll probably only come after us," Chris replied. "For example, if something came running in here right now but was Sam's monster, it might just leave because she's not in here."

"Well what if our opponents don't find us?" Cathy asked, sounding just as scared as Kyle.

"Sadly, I'm gonna have to say that they will most definitely find you," I answered. "The bad guys always find the good guys in these movies. You never know how, but they always do." I peeked over at the clock to find the time reading 6:35. "Showtime."

The others glanced over at the clock as well just as a bolt of lightening illuminated the sky outside. We all jumped, some more than others. Call it a horror movie cliché, but of course it was thunder storming outside.

"Alright, I say we band together and go try to find the other three," Seth proposed.

"Why can't we stay right here?" Kyle asked.

"Only one way out," Seth nodded towards the door.

"But multiple ways in," Chris added, gesturing towards the window and fireplace. "We might not be able to use them, but I'm sure our adversaries could."

"Thus, we're leaving," I said, standing up and moving towards the door to the hallway. I heard the others get up and follow me. I peered into the hallway, noting the darkness. I felt around for a light switch. No such luck.

"Anyone know where the switch is?" I asked, looking back at my group. Seth was right behind me, with Chris close by his right shoulder. Cathy was clinging onto Chris' arm, and Kyle was hovering behind Seth.

"Try the other side of the hall," Chris suggested. I nodded and moved further into the dimly lit room.

"Man, this hallway is deeper than I expected," I said. I felt around on the wall and finally found a switch. I flicked it on and looked around. The hallway led to another hallway that split off left and right. Great.

"Left or right?" I asked.

"Let's go left," Seth suggested, taking the lead down our current corridor. The walls were covered with a weird maroon wallpaper hidden behind portraits of unhappy looking old people. Again, typical of old fashioned horror films.

"Watch the eyes, they probably follow you," I noted, looking up at a picture of an old lady who resembled a cat. Her eyes did seem to follow me down the hall. I shrugged. They would have to do better to scare The Danny.

"And thus we go left," Seth said as we all gathered at the end of the hallway. Our leader, finding the switch to both hallways in plain sight this time, flicked the switch that illuminated our chosen path. It also illuminated a human-like creature standing on two legs wearing a trench coat with red skin and fangs sticking out of its mouth.

Needless to say, we all took off screaming down the right hallway in the pitch dark away from the creature, which started howling. My hand ran along the wall and as soon as I found an open door, I ducked right into it. I let my back slide down the wall until I was sitting on the floor with my knees tucked to my chest and my head leaning back against the wall. I heard the creature streak off down the hall.

"That was a close one guys," I said. I received no response. I opened my eyes to find everything was still in complete darkness. But I didn't need a light to see that I was alone. Great, now we were separated. I looked down at my knees, unable to see them.

Lightning flashed from a window across the room and in its light I saw the silhouette of another person standing in the room. My head shot up just as the person lit a candle, illuminating only the gleaming knife in their rough hand.

"I've been expecting you, Daniel."

**Cathy's POV  
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I felt someone grab my wrist and pull me through a door to the left as we were running away from the trench coat creature. I had no idea who it was, but whoever it was pulled a hand over my mouth as the sounds of the creature screeching down the hall passed the doorway and disappeared further down the hall. I squirmed to get away; what if this person wasn't one of my friends but was actually my opponent? I fought hard against them, my heartbeat resounding in my ears as adrenaline coursed through my veins.

"Cathy, calm down. It's just me!" Seth's voice said quietly. I relaxed. Okay, it really was just a friend.

"There we go," Seth said, releasing me and moving away from me. I didn't know where he was going, but I felt a sudden rush of fear that he'd left me alone. But then I heard the door click shut and hands skimming against a wall.

Seth was still here. _Thunk._ And he'd just run into a table.

A light suddenly turned on, a lamp on the table that Seth had run into.

"So, maybe we should've gone right from the start?" the yellow member suggested with a regretful smile.

"No, then the monster would've just snuck up on us," I replied as I shook my head. "Speaking of, do you have any idea what that thing was?"

"No clue," Seth replied, shaking his head now. His hair was just long enough to flick back and forth as his head moved. "But I suggest that we come up with some sort of strategy and keep moving." I nodded, trying to keep my breathing leveled. I found it funny that he was asking me to help write up a horror movie survival strategy. Then again, it was just the two of us now.

"Alright," I said. "So, who usually survives in these types of situations?" Seth looked at the floor as he tried to concentrate.

"The screamers always die," he commented. "And the ones that go off on their own…"

"So that means that Sam, Christie, and Danielle are all goners?" I asked, hoping that this wasn't true. I was also hoping that the two of us didn't apply to that either seeing as though we'd also split off from the group.

"No, because they're in a group. It's the people that go off completely by themselves that run into trouble," Seth answered. I sighed, not realizing that I'd been nervously holding my breath before he'd answered. "But the ones that survive… don't make stupid decisions."

"Like getting separated," I tried. Seth nodded.

"Or walking in the woods at night without a flashlight," he added. "Or walking anywhere that looks abandoned or has signs that say 'danger' or 'keep out'. A lot of it is common sense, yet horror movie victims just don't seem to get it." I nodded, looking around at the room we were in. It was pretty bare except for two large windows, the small table with the lamp on it, and a chest of drawers at the other end of the room. We could hide out in here, but it was a dead end room just like where we started.

"I think we should try to get out of here," I said. "It's another dead end. But the thing is, we have no idea where to go. We don't even know how big this house is!"

"You're right," Seth nodded. "However, there's only one way to find our way around this house." I met his golden brown orbs and I didn't like that adventurous glint in them.

"What?" I asked reluctantly.

"Dive right into it," Seth replied, moving over to the chest of drawers and pulling the top one open. He dug around in it for a few moments as I watched him. I don't know why this scared me so much; I knew that none of it was actually real. But it sure felt real.

"Here, hold on to this!" Seth said, tossing me a necklace with a small, silver cross on it. "Put it on actually. It might help later." I nodded and did as I was told. Gosh, it was hard trying to clasp a necklace shut when your fingers are shaking!

"And… you take this," Seth added, throwing an broken piece of pipe in my direction. I caught it with both of my hands. It was about as long as one of my arms, but decently lightweight. "That can be your weapon, and this will be mine," he said, pulling a large, rusty candlestick out of the third drawer. "You wouldn't believe all of the random stuff they have in that drawer."

"This room was probably created just so we could find random things to arm ourselves with," I said in reply.

"Could be true," Seth responded, moving towards the door. He took the knob in his hand and met my eyes once again. "Ready, Cathy?" I sighed, facing that fact that we had to do this. I nodded and Seth smiled. "Good. Three… two… one!"

Seth swung the door open and just as he did a terrible screech echoed throughout our little hideout. A large, grey monster came swooping into the room, pushing Seth backwards. But it didn't want Seth, because instead of preying on him, it turned its blood red eyes to me.

"Cathy!" Seth called as the creature thrust a skinny arm at him and sent him flying into the wall.

"Seth!" I cried back just as the beast swopped up to me, standing only about five feet away. It looked relatively human, with sallow, grey tinted skin and those creepy red eyes. Its mouth was open, revealing the long, pearl white fangs that replaced its teeth. That's when it hit me that this thing wasn't human; it was a vampire.

The creature hissed softly, inching towards me slowly. It had a strategy of some sort; I could just tell by the way it was watching me with such slow calculation. I couldn't move. Now I understood the expression 'paralyzed by fear'.

The vampire's eyes were watching the place where I could feel my heart beating a mile a minute. It could probably hear my heart beating. It was probably listening to the sound of my blood rushing hastily through my veins, pumped by fear-driven adrenaline. And those sounds were probably driving it crazy.

The beast stepped even closer to me, and inched back wards, my left heel hitting the wall. Great, I was totally cornered. A small smile twisted on the thin lips of the vampire as I noticed my distress at realizing the situation it had literally backed me into.

I let my back hit the wall, and it did, a small clinking noise caught my attention. I looked down to see the pipe, my weapon. I felt a rush of a new emotion flood my system. Hope.

I looked back at the monster to find that it was less than two feet from me. Man, that thing could creep up fast! But it was within arms reach now, and I wound back my arm holding the pipe and swung at the vampire. It hit him square in the head, and the creature recoiled, howling in pain.

"Cathy! The necklace!" Seth shouted over the vampire's moans. I looked to him, still kneeling by the wall, one hand cradling his head. He was hurt. And what did his clue mean?

Lost in my thoughts about Seth's clue, I didn't notice the vampire's lunging stance until the beast was in the air, sailing at me. I couldn't move as fear paralyzed me again and the creature collided into me. My head smacked into the floor as the thing toppled me over. Stars started swimming in front of my eyes as the creature loomed over me, fangs glaring and eyes searing into me. Its breath was warm against my face and I knew that my end was near. I was going to lose. I tried to fight as the vampire moved towards my exposed neck, but I couldn't move under the beast's weight. It was surprisingly heavy for something that looked like it was made of skin and bones.

The vampire started to shriek again, pulling away from my body. I blinked, the stars starting to disappear, and noticed how the creature had pulled away from me. I touched my neck, my fingers finding the cool metal of the necklace that Seth had given me. Then the piece snapped into place. The necklace! Crosses were a weakness to vampires! I looked back at my opponent.

Standing up shakily, I moved towards it with the cross in hand. The chain on the necklace was fairly long, so I could hold it out far enough without choking myself. And sure enough, the creature backed away from the cross, avoiding it like it was the plague or something awful like that. I kept up my advance until I had just about touched its ashen skin, when the vampire gave a defeat howl and dove out the window. Glass shattered around it, and I covered my face to keep from getting hit.

As I removed my hands, I met the sight of a broken window, revealing the stormy night outside. The vampire was gone. For now.

I ran back to Seth, kneeling beside him. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Fine," he replied unconvincingly.

"You're hurt," I said, noticing how he was still favoring the spot where his head had hit the wall when the creature had thrown him back.

"I'll be okay," Seth repeated, taking my hand. "How're you?" I hadn't realized that I'd been shaking until Seth's sturdy hand had clasped around my own trembling one.

"I don't want to do that again," I shook my head.

"Sadly, neither of you are dead yet, so you're going to have to face that thing at least one more time," Seth replied with a sad smile. "But I must say, you did a great job against that thing." I smiled.

"Thanks. How did you know that I'd need this necklace?" I asked.

"I didn't," Seth replied simply. "But I had a hunch that one of the eight of us would get a vampire as our opponent, and we got lucky that it was you." I nodded, twisting the necklace though my fingers. I looked back out the window. I'd have to face that thing again. But I'd be ready next time.

"Lucky indeed," I said.

**So, where are the other three girls now? What happened to Danny? And where did Chris and Kyle go? Questions, questions, questions!**

**P.S. a pipe and a candlestick are two weapons in the game Clue. I just thought I'd throw that in there. =)**

**Reviews, comments, critiques, anything on your mind? Share it in the little box below! =)**

**And, I know this is a day late but, MERRY CHRISTMAS! Or HAPPY HOLIDAYS! And also HAPPY NEW YEAR! **

**Read on! =)**


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